On Saturday, the Enforcement Directorate carried out its second day of a search operation at ten locations in Chennai related to the purported Rs 1,000 crore Tasmac bribery scheme, which started on Friday morning.
Once more, Tasmac Managing Director S Visakan was brought to the Enforcement Directorate's Nungambakkam office for questioning, where he spent at least ten hours being questioned. According to sources, Deva, a well-known hotel owner, was also called to the agency's office to be questioned.
In the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case that it has registered, the ED is conducting the searches in order to gather evidence regarding suspected money laundering. Based on 41 FIRs filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) about corruption in the state-owned liquor marketing corporation, the agency has scheduled the case.
Ongoing raids have not yet been officially noted by ED.
During the first week of March, Tasmac's Egmore office and the offices of many distilleries and bottling facilities that provide booze to the government company were searched.
The central agency searched properties connected to film producer Akash Bhaskaran of Dawn Pictures, AP Keshav Selvi of KS Smart Solutions, a tech company that had secured contracts from several state government departments, Ratheesh Velu, a resident of Chennai who was close to high-ranking government officials, an executive of a bottling company associated with Tasmac, and a few contractors in addition to Visakan's Manapakkam residence. According to insiders, the searches are being conducted against organizations that are allegedly "conduits" for the bribe money's laundering. The ED has claimed that kickbacks in Tasamc were paid with unlawfully produced extra funds totaling Rs 1,000 crore. The agency has not yet released an official statement about the searches.
