DMK welcomes SC stay in TN liquor-gate

Huge relief is palpable in the DMK following the Supreme Court staying the money laundering probe into the Tamil Nadu state-run monopoly IMFL retailer, TASMAC, with the ruling party on Thursday launching a scathing attack on the Centre and the Enforcement Directorate, terming the latter as a blackmailing agency.

“The Supreme Court’s stay on the ED probe into the alleged Tasmac scam is a hammer blow to the BJP’s attempt to paint the DMK government of MK Stalin as corrupt. The ED is a blackmailing agency,” party Organising Secretary R S Bharathi told reporters, shortly after the apex court order, at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam in Chennai.

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“Ever since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the ED has been used against non-BJP ruled states to discredit and destabilise them,” he alleged adding that the BJP, unable to digest the rising popularity of Chief Minister MK Stalin and the successive electoral success of the DMK-led alliance, was using the ED to malign the DMK government with leaders of the saffron party making all kinds of charges.

“The Supreme Court has handed out a hammer blow to all that, we welcome it. Henceforth the Union Government should stop misusing the ED,” Bharathi said.

Alleging further, he slammed the ED as a blackmailing agency and cited the instances of ED officials arrested in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in connection with bribery allegations. “With barely seven months left for the assembly election, efforts are made to paint the DMK government as corrupt. The apex court order will put an end to the persistent nuisance of the ED,” he said.

Meanwhile, DMK Lawyers’ Wing secretary NR Elango, MP, made it clear that the party would take legal action against the errant ED officials misusing the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA) as provided in the statute at the appropriate time.

 “For the first time the Supreme Court has pulled up the ED for acting against the Federal structure of the country and state autonomy. The ED is used to target the opposition ruled states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu. As such, we see this apex court order as one for the entire country,” he said.

Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) is the sole retailer of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and the ED has carried out raids on the Tasmac headquarters here and on liquor manufacturers as well as bottling units and claimed to have unearthed a scam running to Rs 1000 crores.

With the Madras High Court giving the go ahead, the ED had carried out further searches and questioned Tasmac MD, S Visakan, a promoted IAS officer. The present order of the SC was made on the plea of the state challenging the High Court order.