Documents name ministers in RK Nagar cash-for-vote scam

The documents included the names of the CM Edappadi K Palanisamy, Ministers KA Sengottaiyan, Radhakrishnan, Dindigul Sreenivasan, P Thangamani, SP Velumani and D Jayakumar. 

As per the details on the seized papers, Rs 89,65,80,000 had been provided to these ministers for distribution among 2,24,145 voters, which is 85 percent of the total electorate at RK Nagar.

The documents also showed that elaborate planning had been made by the TTV Dinakaran group for distribution of cash and each minister had been allocated 30 booths after taking the number of total voters in these booths into consideration. So, each minister had on an average 30,000 voters to be covered and the money for distribution worked out at the rate of Rs 4,000 per voter. 

The six ministers named in the papers had allegedly formed the sub-committees and further minimised the area of coverage per person and the cash had been split and circulated to the unit leaders.

“A sum of Rs 60 crore has already been distributed among voters and we have intercepted them when the final round of distribution is on,” a senior I-T official said.

I-T department sources said Vijaya Baskar, who is a staunch supporter of Sasikala, was the main co-ordinator, who himself had selected the ministers to head the cash distribution. 

“We have seized around Rs 5 crore and not all the seized money was meant for distribution among voters. But more than Rs 2 crore was meant for that. We have taken statements from the associates of Vijaya Baskar to the effect that the money was meant for distribution among voters,” the official added. 

As the next step to the raids that culminated late on Friday, the I-T department would submit all the seized documents regarding cash for vote scam to the Election Commission. 

“The evidences clearly prove the cash distribution to voters by the Dinakaran faction and now the call has to be made by the Election Commission,’’ the official added.

The ‘mysterious’ parcel that Health Minister Vijaya Baskar’s driver managed to pass on to another party supporter during the I-T raids was the print-out with the names of ministers, who were heading the cash distribution at RK Nagar. Highly-placed I-T sources told DTNext that the driver also tried to escape from the Greenways Road residence of Vijaya Baskar when the I-T raids were on. 

“We have grilled the driver after taking him into custody, besides recording a statement from him. He confessed that the print-out had the names of the ministers. However, we managed to get a copy of similar document from Vijaya Baskar’s house,” the sources said. 

There was high drama at the Minister’s house when the I-T officials and CISF personnel wanted to catch the driver while he was trying to escape with the parcel. The CISF personnel managed to nab and interrogate him.