Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Friday criticized the ruling Tamil Na Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) over the searches conducted by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in the residences of former minister Yves Velu, saying it was “exact revenge on those who work for the welfare of the people”.
The agency conducted searches at the residences of a senior DMK leader in Chennai along with the residences of the 10 officials who served in the highways department in 2022.
“In the Assembly (on June 23), newly appointed Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay was responding to the Governor’s address. At that time, he deliberately mentioned a specific period from 2017 to 2026 and made some baseless allegations without any evidence,” EV Velu said.
“I stood up at that moment and asked him to speak with the evidence. I said that if there is such an allegation, the evidence should first be presented to the Speaker of the House of Representatives before the charge is brought – and this has been the tradition followed until now. I have constantly raised this objection,” Filo told reporters.
Claiming that council president J C D Prabhakar denied giving him any permission to speak, Velu said, “After that we walked out of the council peacefully. However, they raided my residential property only based on the questions I asked them that day. They did it only for political revenge on me.”
“By doing these things (carrying raids by DVAC), the ruling government thinks that we will be afraid. We belong to the DMK and this movement has faced MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) itself and we will not be afraid of this,” he said.
Philo said he would prove his innocence in court. “You can conduct raids, you can file cases, there is a court of law. The court is our ultimate hope and I will definitely prove that I am innocent in court. I have done nothing wrong and repeating a lie several times does not make it true.”
Responding to the comments, TVK Minister A. Rajmohan: “We have not engaged in any political vendetta. This action was taken on proper grounds and evidence. One must face this courageously. Face it legally.”
“When the administration takes action on an unrelated complaint received against him, he claims that it was done out of revenge. This cannot be done without proper basis. He was arrested with strong evidence,” Rajmohan added.
The Tamil Nadu Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Directorate on Thursday registered a case against former state highways minister EV Velu, 10 officials of the department, and a private contracting firm for their alleged involvement in a multi-crore road construction scam.
The FIR registered by the Special Investigation Cell DVAC names Velu along with several other high-ranking highway engineers, divisional accountants and a Karur-based contractor.
