Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced on Tuesday (January 15) that its Chennai Zonal Office has provisionally attached properties worth approximately Rs 100.93 crore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002.
The attachment is linked to a case against R. Vaithilingam, an MLA and former Minister for Housing and Urban Development in Tamil Nadu. The attached properties are registered under M/s Muthammal Estates Pvt. Ltd., a family-owned entity of Vaithilingam.
The ED investigation stems from an FIR filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), Chennai, under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The FIR alleged that R. Vaithilingam, during his tenure as Housing Minister, accepted a bribe of Rs 27.90 crore from M/s Shriram Properties & Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. According to the DVAC, Shriram Properties sought planning permission from the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) to construct 1,453 dwelling units on 57.47 acres at GST Road, Perungalathur, Chennai.
The application remained pending with the CMDA between December 2, 2013, and February 24, 2016, when Vaithilingam was the Housing Minister.
It is alleged that the company paid Rs 27.90 crore as a bribe to obtain the necessary approvals.
The ED’s investigation revealed a scheme involving shell entities to layer and disguise the bribe payments as share application money. Payments purportedly made by Shriram group entities for land purchases were found to be misrepresented and never intended for actual acquisition.
Instead, these funds were routed through multiple shell entities and ultimately parked in M/s Muthammal Estates Pvt. Ltd., controlled by Vaithilingam’s family members. The illicit funds were used to acquire immovable properties in Trichy, which have now been provisionally attached by the ED.
R. Vaithilingam is a senior leader of the AIADMK. He was elected as an MLA from the Orathanadu constituency three times and served as a minister between 2001 and 2006.
From 2011 to 2016, he held the portfolios of Housing and Urban Development, and Agriculture. He also served as a Rajya Sabha MP from 2016 to 2021 and was re-elected as an MLA from Orathanadu in the 2021 Assembly elections.
(IANS)
