CHENNAI: More than 21kg of gold and 280kg of silver articles, 10 luxury cars and several property documents were among the valuables unearthed by vigilance officials from the premises owned by R Elangovan, 57, chairman of Tamil Nadu State Apex Co-operative Bank, and his son E Praveenkumar, 27, in coordinated raids carried out across the state on Friday.
The directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) conducted the raids simultaneously at 36 places — three places in Chennai, 23 in Salem, three in Namakkal, six in Musiri and one place in Coimbatore — belonging to the father and son.
According to the DVAC FIR, Elangovan, who is considered a close associate of former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, and his son had invested large sums of ill-gotten wealth in colleges and institutions run by Swamy Ayyappan Educational Trust at Musiri in Trichy. Praveenkumar is the vice-chairman of the trust. Edappadi K Palaniswami, who condemned the raid, said Elangovan was Salem suburban district Amma Peravai secretary and the DVAC’s crackdown was political vendetta. During the raids, Rs 29.8 lakh cash and property documents were seized, and the agency identified 10 luxury cars, two Volvo buses, three hard discs, 21.2 kg of gold jewellery, 282.4 kg of silver ware, passbooks and property documents during the searches.
“It is suspected that the accused have acquired many more assets and kept it in the name of benamis in various places in and around Tamil Nadu and outside,” the FIR stated. Elangovan has a palatial house in his native place, it said.
Elangovan was elected president of Salem District Central Co-operative Bank and chairman of the TN State Apex Co-operative Bank in 2013 and was re-elected in 2018, because of which he is classified as a public servant.
DVAC officials also searched the residence of Indrani Kaliya Perumal at Lalapettai in Karur district on Fridayday. Indrani is said to be a family member of Elangovan. One team of DVAC officials conducted a search at Elangovan’s auditor’s house in Salem city.
DVAC FIR said assets worth Rs 3.78 crore, disproportionate to the known sources of income of Elangovan and Praveenkumar had been identified as of now. It was accumulated during a six-year check period from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2020, constituting 131% of their total income during the period, DVAC said.
