<p>Chennai: Tamil Nadu forest minister K Ponmudy on Tuesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate here for questioning in a money laundering case investigation, official sources said.</p><p>The minister's statement was recorded under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.</p><p>The central agency had in July attached assets worth more than Rs 14 crore in an alleged illegal mining-linked money laundering case against the 74-year-old minister, a DMK leader, his ex-MP son P Gautham Sigamani and some family members.</p>.E V K S Elangovan: The consensus man in faction-ridden Tamil Nadu Congress.<p>The money laundering case related to alleged illegal red earth mining stems from a state police (crime branch) FIR.</p><p>The ED had raided the premises of the minister in July last year and Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin had then said that the action was a "political vendetta of the Union BJP government." During 2007-2010, when Ponmudy was the minister of mines, he "managed" to allot five licences in the names of Dr P Gautham Sigamani, Sigmani's brother-in-law K S Rajamahendran, and Jayachandran, who "admitted" to have had acted on behalf of Sigamani in the quarrying of red earth in 'patta' lands, the agency had said in a statement.</p><p>"Red earth was extracted illegally beyond the permitted limits to the tune of Rs 25.7 crore and the sale proceeds were invested in the overseas entity," it had alleged.</p><p>The minister is an MLA from the Tirukkoyilur Assembly seat in Villupuram district while his 50-year old son Sigamani represented the Kallakurichi seat as an MP.</p>
<p>Chennai: Tamil Nadu forest minister K Ponmudy on Tuesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate here for questioning in a money laundering case investigation, official sources said.</p><p>The minister's statement was recorded under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.</p><p>The central agency had in July attached assets worth more than Rs 14 crore in an alleged illegal mining-linked money laundering case against the 74-year-old minister, a DMK leader, his ex-MP son P Gautham Sigamani and some family members.</p>.E V K S Elangovan: The consensus man in faction-ridden Tamil Nadu Congress.<p>The money laundering case related to alleged illegal red earth mining stems from a state police (crime branch) FIR.</p><p>The ED had raided the premises of the minister in July last year and Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin had then said that the action was a "political vendetta of the Union BJP government." During 2007-2010, when Ponmudy was the minister of mines, he "managed" to allot five licences in the names of Dr P Gautham Sigamani, Sigmani's brother-in-law K S Rajamahendran, and Jayachandran, who "admitted" to have had acted on behalf of Sigamani in the quarrying of red earth in 'patta' lands, the agency had said in a statement.</p><p>"Red earth was extracted illegally beyond the permitted limits to the tune of Rs 25.7 crore and the sale proceeds were invested in the overseas entity," it had alleged.</p><p>The minister is an MLA from the Tirukkoyilur Assembly seat in Villupuram district while his 50-year old son Sigamani represented the Kallakurichi seat as an MP.</p>