ED registers money laundering case in drug trafficking racket involving former DMK functionary

The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case to probe an international drugs trafficking racket that allegedly involves a former functionary of the DMK, official sources said Sunday.

The case has been filed by the federal agency under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of a bunch of FIRs, including the NCB case where 36-year-old Jaffer Sadiq was arrested on Saturday for his alleged involvement in smuggling about 3,500 kgs of pseudoephedrine with a street value of about Rs 2,000 crore.

The NCB said Sadiq's links with Tamil and Hindi film financers, some "high profile" people and related to "political funding" were under its scanner.

The NCB is expected to soon summon a senior DMK party functionary in connection with two transactions of Rs 7 lakh made by Sadiq, according to sources in the anti-narcotics agency.

Sadiq, a producer of Tamil films, was expelled by the ruling DMK in February after his name and purported links to the drugs network were mentioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

According to the NCB, he told the agency that he was the Chennai West deputy organiser of the DMK's NRI wing.

Sadiq was called the alleged "mastermind and kingpin" of the drugs trafficking case in which the NCB arrested three more persons after conducting raids at a godown in Delhi in February.

Tamil Nadu Law Minister and DMK leader S Regupathy on Sunday asserted that his party has no links with Sadiq.