ED harassing Tasmac officials, says minister, terms it political vendetta

CHENNAI: Condemning the "politically motivated vendetta raids" conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged Tasmac scam, State Housing and Prohibition Minister S Muthusamy on Saturday said that the Tamil Nadu government would explore all legal remedies against the actions and stand by its officials.

As the central agency’s raids continued for the second day in the city in places associated with the Tasmac and others, minister Muthusamy called it an act of "political vendetta" and said, "On behalf of the Tamil Nadu government, I register my strong condemnation to the acts of political vendetta unleashed by the ED in repeated violation of the guidelines set by the Supreme Court in numerous ED cases.

"The Tamil Nadu government will undertake all required legal action against the raids and stand by our government officials," said Muthusamy, in a statement, as the ED took Tasmac managing director S Visakan for grilling for the second day in connection with an alleged multi-crore scam in the State-run agencies’ procurements. Referring to Friday's raids conducted by the ED at the residences of Tasmac managing director and a few others, the prohibition minister said, "Unable to gather any evidence even during this raid, the ED is harassing government officials."

Citing similar raids conducted by the federal agency at the Tasmac headquarters last month, the minister said that based on the cases booked by the DVAC in the previous AIADMK regime, the ED was intentionally trying to project as if irregularities were committed in Tasmac under the incumbent.

Accusing the central agency of circulating an imaginary story that irregularities to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore were committed in Tasmac despite ED not being able to gather any evidence pointing to the same, Muthusamy said that the central agency under the BJP-led Union government was repeatedly harassing Tasmac officials to justify its earlier false report.