TN: Officials search AIADMK ex-minister P Thangamani’s premises, unearth ‘unaccounted assets’
The search operations by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption targeted at least 14 premises associated with former electricity minister and AIADMK leader P Thangamani in Vellore, Salem, Karur, Namakkal, Tirupur and Coimbatore besides one place in Karnataka and two in Andhra Pradesh.
3 min read
P Thangamani (Facebook/P Thangamani)Tamil Nadu officials Wednesday searched multiple premises linked to a former state minister and said they discovered several crores of unaccounted wealth, besides large sums in the form of cryptocurrency.
The search operations by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption targeted at least 14 premises associated with former electricity minister and AIADMK leader P Thangamani in Vellore, Salem, Karur, Namakkal, Tirupur and Coimbatore besides one place in Karnataka and two in Andhra Pradesh.
An official statement said the search teams seized unaccounted assets including Rs 2.16 crore in cash, over one kilogram of gold, more than 40 kg of silver assets and several cell phones. The teams also accessed details of bank lockers and hard disks.
A senior officer with knowledge of the operations held at Thangamani’s Salem residence said officers found investments in cryptocurrency besides seizing unaccounted assets. “There were Rs 40 to 50 crore worth of investments made in cryptocurrency. This investment process started much before the pandemic started and it has gained a huge profit. We are launching a detailed probe on using disproportionate assets to invest in crypto coins,” this officer said.
The officer said Thangamani’s son T Dharanidharan and son-in-law S Dinesh Kumar had been dealing with the crypto investments. A preliminary investigation found investments in five crypto coins including Bitcoin (worth Rs 36.58 lakh/unit), Ethereum (Rs 3.07 lakh/unit), Ada (Rs 101.50/unit), Tether ( Rs 80.44/unit) and Solana (Rs 12,912/unit).
An FIR filed against Thangamani and family members said his son Dharanidharan had shown business activity in the name of Murugan Earth Movers; the investigations revealed that those businesses were only on paper to cover illegal income.
The FIR accused Thangamani of acquiring disproportionate assets worth several crores in the name of his relatives and of huge investments in crypto assets.
AIADMK leader K Palaniswami alleged that the vigilance action was due to “political vendetta” and the AIADMK’s “growing clout”.
The son of a textile merchant, Kumarapalayam MLA Thangamani was first elected to the Assembly in 2006. His second tenure was in 2011 and 2016 when he held the revenue portfolio in the state cabinet, between 2011 and 2012. He was the minister of industries, steel, mines and minerals between 2012 and 2016, and held the Transport portfolio from July 2015 to 2016. He held the portfolios of electricity, prohibition and excise departments from May 2016 to May 2021.
You May Like
Photos
