Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister Ponmudi returned home in the early hours of Tuesday after about eight hours of interrogation at the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) office. The ED has further summoned Ponmudi to its office on Tuesday evening at 4 pm, officials said. Meanwhile, DMK spokesperson Saravanan alleged that the ED’s long hours of questioning amount to an “utter violation of human rights.”
The search, that began at 7am on Thursday, was done at nine places connected to the minister and his MP-son Gowtham Sigamani. After the search and inquiry lasting for more than 14 hours, the senior minister was escorted to the ED’s office at Shastri Bhavan in Nungambakkam.The action was condemned by TamilNaduĀ chief minister M K Stalin, who said the DMK would not be cowed down by such intimidatory tactics. He said the ED raid, along with governor R N Ravi’s provocative action, would make election work easy for the DMK. AICC president Mallikarjuna Kharge also condemned the raids, which coincided with the two-day Opposition conclave in Bengaluru.