Sunday, Aug 18, 2002
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Tamil Nadu
By K.T. Sangameswaran
The personnel swooped down on the houses of the former ministers, Veerapandi S. Arumugham, Jennifer Chandran, S. Raghupathy, (who was Labour Minister in the previous AIADMK Ministry headed by Jayalalithaa but who is now with the DMK) and B. Ranganathan, Purasawalkam MLA belonging to the Congress Jananayaka Peravai, who contested on DMK symbol. A senior DVAC official told The Hindu that the police had registered cases against the former Ministers and the legislator on Friday. The filing of the FIRs was preceded by the mandatory preliminary police enquiry into the assets of the former Ministers. The search operations began around 8 a.m. today. Nearly 30 places, which included the houses of the former Ministers, their close relatives and associates, in Chennai, Salem, Tiruchendur and Pudukottai were searched. While a dozen of the premises were searched in connection with the case against Mr. Arumugham, eight pertained to Mr. Raghupathy, three to Ms. Chandran and six to Mr. Ranganathan. Only in March this year, did the vigilance personnel conduct searches in connection with the ``assets disproportionate to known sources of income'' cases against the former DMK Ministers, K. Ponmudi, Samayanallur Selvaraj, Anthiyur Selvaraj and Suresh Rajan, the former Madurai Mayor, Kulandaivelu, and the former Tuticorin MLA, N. Periyasamy. In all, 32 places were searched. The police claimed that land and building documents, high-value policies and deposits and Rs. 4 lakhs in cash were seized. Nearly 550 sovereigns of jewellery were also found in different places. Evaluation of the seized property was on.
`Arumugham acquired Rs. 59-lakh assets'
As for today's searches, the DVAC said Mr. Arumugham had allegedly acquired assets worth Rs. 59 lakhs, Mr. Ragupathy Rs. 1.42 crores, Ms. Chandran Rs. 42 lakhs and Mr. Ranganathan Rs. 50 lakhs. In the case against Mr. Arumugham, incriminating documents for property worth over Rs. 1 crore had been acquired during the check period. About Rs. 1.12 lakhs in cash was seized. Eight television sets, five air-conditioners, three refrigerators and three cars were found in his house at Poolavari, near Salem. During the check period from June 1991 to May 1996, Mr. Ragupathy accumulated assets which included construction of a big house, shares, investments, business establishments and an engineering college worth Rs. 1.3 crores and a cash balance of Rs. 12 lakhs. He made it appear that his family members had received Rs. 96 lakhs as a gift from foreign countries. A probe would have to be held with Interpol assistance, to trace the background of the donors and the circumstances under which such huge donations were made, says a DVAC release. Deposits worth Rs. 5 lakhs were found kept in the lockers in Ms. Chandran's house. As for Mr. Ranganathan, the searches resulted in seizure of Rs. 2 lakhs in cash, discovery of construction of five buildings worth Rs. 1.5 crores and ownership of five companies, including a construction firm.
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