Registering a case of disproportionate assets (DA) case against former AIADMK minister S P Velumani, the Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Vigilance (DVAC) on Tuesday conducted searches at 59 premises owned by him and his relatives and recovered 11 kilograms of gold and records of several cryptocurrencies.
This is the second case that the DVAC has filed against Velumani; in August 2021, the agency booked the Coimbatore strongman of the AIADMK for indulging in “large-scale favouritism” by abusing his official position in awarding contracts to his close associates, including his elder brother P Anbarasan.
The latest FIR registered in Coimbatore lists 13 accused, including Velumani, Anbarasan, his wife Hemalatha and three private firms, and alleges that the former minister and his relatives amassed wealth to the tune of Rs 58.93 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.
At the end of the searches, the DVAC said gold ornaments weighing about 11.153 kg, 118.506 kilograms of silver, incriminating documents, unaccounted cash of Rs 84 lakh, mobile phones, locker keys of several banks, and computer hard disks were seized. Investment in different cryptocurrencies to the tune of Rs 34 lakh was also detected. The DVAC had accused another former minister, P Thangamani, of investing in crypto.
Velumani was the Municipal Administration Minister from 2014 to 2021 and emerged as the most powerful person next only to Palaniswami after the latter assumed office as chief minister in 2017. He wielded tremendous influence within the government and AIADMK when it was in power and was the DMK’s prime target in the 2021 elections.
The FIR accused Velumani of being involved in acquiring properties and pecuniary resources in his name and in the names of his family members, relatives, close associates and others, which are disproportionate to his known sources of income.
“Velumani (A-l), with the sole intention of converting and accounting his own ill-gotten wealth received by plundering the exchequer of Government through the fraudulent award of tenders in a Criminal Partisan manner and in other illegal means, had hatched a criminal conspiracy with A-2 to A-10,” the FIR alleged.
The DVAC suspects that Velumani has invested overseas and referred to his visit to Singapore thrice in 2019 during which he stayed for 14 days. “He had also travelled once each to Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, United Kingdom and the Maldives during his tenure as a minister and had stayed there for a total number of about 32 days,” the FIR said.
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