The federal probe agency is searching the premises as part of a probe linked to the TVH group. Inset: Tamil Nadu minister K N Nehru
Credit: PTI File Photo, X/@KN_NEHRU
Chennai: Bringing yet another senior DMK leader under its radar, the Enforcement Directorate on Monday swooped down on the premises owned by Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration Minister K N Nehru and his son and Lok Sabha MP Arun Nehru across the state in connection with a bank fraud case involving a company owned by the family.
Nehru, who is the principal secretary of the DMK and is placed fourth in the pecking order of the Cabinet led by Chief Minister M K Stalin, is one of the powerful regional satraps in the ruling party. The raids being conducted at 13 locations, including Nehru’s residence in Thillai Nagar in Tiruchirapalli and Arun’s office in upscale Alwarpet in Chennai, began at 7 am on Monday.
Raids were also conducted in many places including in Coimbatore where Nehru’s another brother Manivannan lives.
Sources said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken cognizance of an alleged bank fraud amounting to Rs 22 crore involving Chennai-based TRUEDOM EPC India Private Limited, where K N Ravichandran, one of Nehru’s brothers, serves as a director.
They added that financial transactions between TRUEDOM EPC India Private Limited and True Value Homes (TVH) — a company owned by the same family, in which Arun served as a director before contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections — are currently under investigation.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a case against the company and its directors in 2021. Based on that FIR, the ED has now launched an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
TVH is involved in building villas and luxury apartments in many cities of Tamil Nadu. As the raids were underway, scores of DMK cadres gathered outside the residence of Nehru in Tiruchirapalli and shouted slogans against the ED and BJP.
The sources said the raids aren’t standalone, but part of a broader investigation into alleged illegal financial transactions involving construction companies.
Nehru is the latest DMK minister to come under the radar of Central agencies after V Senthil Balaji, K Ponmudy, and Anitha R Radhakrishnan. DMK MP and business magnate S Jagathrakshakan has also been raided by the ED and Income tax department in the past few years.
The raids also come at a time when the DMK dispensation and the BJP-led Union Government are engaged in an intense battle over the three language policy under the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.