CHENNAI: The raids by the Enforcement Directorate in about 10 locations linked to State-owned Tasmac officials and others were only to “tarnish the image” of the ruling DMK, the party said on Friday.

Asserting that nothing was likely to emerge from the searches conducted in connection to the Tasmac-linked money laundering case, DMK spokesperson J Constandine Ravindran wondered if similar searches in the past established anything at all.

“These raids are meant to tarnish the image of the DMK government… only to create a bad name. Nothing would come out of the raids,” Ravindran said.

The opposition AIADMK, however, claimed that the searches were conducted on the premises of those associated with the DMK’s first family.

“Series of raids are conducted by the Enforcement Directorate at the house of a friend of the DMK first family, and a relative of a State minister. Tasmac scam...connect the dots,” the AIADMK said in a post on the social media platform X.

In Madurai, BJP state unit chief Nainar Nagenthiran told reporters that the ED would not initiate raids for no reason.

Last month, V Senthilbalaji, who was holding the Prohibition portfolio, facing the heat of the ED raids, resigned from the State Cabinet. The central agency had said it found records to show “direct” communication between distillery companies and higher Tasmac officials, exposing efforts to secure increased indent orders and “undue” favours. The distilleries “systematically inflated “ expenses and “fabricated” purchases, it said.