Vigilance teams raid Durai Murugans premises

CHENNAI: Former DMK minister D Durai Murugan’s houses and offices were raided on Thursday by DVAC officials. The premises of his family members were are also searched by the DVAC. Durai Murugan was present during the raid at his Gandhimandapam Road, Kotturpuram, residence here.Simultaneously, a house belonging to Santhakumari, wife of Durai Murugan, at Gandhinagar, Vellore, and a house belonging to Duraisingam, brother of the ex-minister, at Gandhinagar, Katpadi, were also searched.Police said three commercial flats located on First Main Road, Adyar, Chennai, two of which had been rented out, and a third one housing the administrative office of an export unit located on Vandalur-Kelambakkam Road allegedly belonging to Kadhir Anand, son of the former minister, were also searched.Police sources said documents worth Rs 6.40 crore linked to a windmill, expenditure vouchers, Rs 85,000 in cash and a hard disk were seized during the raids. “Only after investigation, we will know more about the windmill and the contents in the hard disk,” a police officer said.Apart from residences, commercial establishments including a mineral water unit belonging to the family of Durai Murugan at Kasam village, Katpadi Taluk, its godown at Gandhinagar, Katpadi, an ITC cigarette godown at Gandhinagar, Katpadi, and an agency in the name of Kadhir Anand were also searched, police said.An engineering college at Mettukulam, Katpadi, that houses the college office, Duraimurugan Education Trust, B Ed College and a secondary grade teacher training institute were also raided. A spinning mill cottage at Yelagiri, Thirupathur Taluk, belonging to Kadhir spinning mills that was yet to commence operation, was also searched.“We had a total of nine teams conducting the searches in different places from 7 am to 5 pm,” said a senior police officer.The former PWD and Law and Prison minister is the sixth former DMK minister to fall into the DVAC net. Earlier, residences and office premises of K Ponmudi, KN Nehru, MRK Panneerselvam, N Suresh Rajan and T M Anbarasan were raided.