Gold, cash found at premises of AIADMK leader, son, others: TN Vigilance

Chennai, Oct 23 (IANS) Officials of Tamil Nadu Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Friday found gold, silver items, luxury cars, Volvo buses and other items during their search at the residences and business premises of an AIADMK leader considered to be close to former Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, a statement said.

According to the DVAC, searches were carried out in 36 places belonging to Tamil Nadu State Apex Cooperative Bank Chairman and Salem District Central Cooperative Bank President R. Elangovan, his son E.Praveen Kumar, relatives and close associates who are suspected to have assets on behalf of Elangovan.

During the search operations, 21.2 kg of gold, 282.383 kg of silver, cash of 29.77 lakh, 10 luxury cars including a Cooper and an Audi, two Volvo buses, property documents, bank deposits of Rs 68 lakh were identified and those which are relevant for the case have been seized, it said.

The DVAC has registered a disproportionate asset case against Elangovan and his son Kumar on Thursday. They were accused of amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income during the check period of April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2020.

The searches are being carried out in several places in Salem, Chennai, Coimbatore and Namakkal.

Elangovan also holds a post in AIADMK and is said to be close to AIADMK Joint Coordinator Palaniswami.

Condeming the searches, Palaniswami said the DMK government is carrying out a vendetta policitcs.

The state government has registered corruption cases against former ministers of AIADMK government like C. Vijayabaskar, S.P. Velumani, M.R. Vijayabhaskar and K.C. Veeramani.