Officials of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption on Friday conducted simultaneous searches at places linked to R. Ilangovan, chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Apex Cooperative Bank.
The raids were conducted at 23 places in Salem, three each in Namakkal and Chennai and six places in Musiri and Tiruchi and one place in Coimbatore.
The DVAC’s Salem unit on Wednesday registered a case against Mr. Ilangovan and his son E. Praveen Kumar for accumulating assets disproportionate to the known sources of their income.
Mr. Ilangovan has been serving as the bank chairman since 2013, and he was re-elected to the post in 2018. He was accused of misusing his position and association with politicians to accumulate assets between April 2014 and March 2020. The DVAC has put the disproportionate assets at ₹3.78 crore, 131% of his total income. It also accused the father and the son of acquiring assets in the name of benamis and investing huge sums in institutions run by Swamy Ayyappan Educational Trust in Tiruchi.
The searches started in the early hours. The sleuths reached Mr. Ilangovan’s residence at Puthragoundampalayam before 7 a.m, but they could not begin the searches because he and his family were not present and a biometric system was in place to regulate entry.
Mr. Ilangovan came down from Chennai to Salem at 12.15 p.m. Then, the searches started at the three-storey residence, lasting till the late hours. Searches were also conducted at the homes of his relatives at Vazhapadi, Attur and a few other places here. In Namakkal, the searches were conducted on the premises of PST Constructions.
Over 200 AIADMK workers staged a protest in front of Mr. Ilangovan’s residence, alleging that the action was politically motivated. Party MLAs A.P. Jayashankaran, G. Chitra, E. Balasubramanian, A. Nallathambi and R. Mani and former Minister R.B. Udhayakumar reached the place.
Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K. Palaniswami said the searches were politically motivated and meant to sabotage his party’s activities. According to a release, ₹29.77 lakh in cash, 10 luxury cars, two Volvo buses, three computer hard discs, 21.2 kg of gold jewellery, 282.38 kg of silver articles, bank deposits and property documents worth ₹68 lakhs were seized. Documents relating to the case were also seized. The DVAC said the search process would continue.
