New Delhi: ED writes to Tamil Nadu govt linking minister Nehru to ₹366-cr transfer-posting 'bribery' racket
Chennai/New Delhi, The Enforcement Directorate has shared fresh inputs regarding an alleged ₹366 crore worth money laundering and corruption ring in the transfer and appointments of officials and engineers in Tamil Nadu’s Department of Municipal Administration Urban and Water Supply, officials said on Tuesday.
The federal probe agency’s Chennai zonal office has sent a letter in this context to state chief secretary and the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption seeking registration of a police FIR against minister K N Nehru and some others linked to him.
The ED had also written two separate letters to the state government authorities in October and December last year claiming “wide spread” corruption in the department’s tenders and recruitments and linked Nehru to these charges.
The minister had then defended himself, saying he was being continuously targeted by the ED in a bid to defame him and said that he would legally face the charges.
Nehru had condemned the ED and alleged that it joined the ranks of the opposition parties that cannot tolerate the achievements of the DMK and hence was “continuously targeting” to “defame” him.
Officials said the alleged corruption instances in the municipal administration urban and water supply department’s transfer and posting came to the notice of the ED in April 2025 during searches in a bank loan “fraud” case where relatives and purported associates of Nehru were covered.
The said probe was initiated by the ED on the basis of a CBI FIR which was later quashed and the ED case fell through as the predicate offence was closed. The accused in the bank “fraud” case repaid the loan through a one-time settlement, as per officials.
The ED, hence, utilised its powers available under section 66 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to share these inputs and “evidence” with the state government and police so that they book a criminal case, which in turn, can become its foundation to file a PMLA case.
The said PMLA provision empowers ED to share information and evidence regarding an offence with the police or a designated law enforcement agency.
It claimed alleged bribe amounts ranging from ₹7 lakh to ₹1 crore, depending on a case-to-case basis, was being transacted in the case of about 340 the municipal administration urban and water supply department officials. The agency alleged the data shared by it in the relevant communication was of a “limited” period and that this claimed bribery ring was wider.
The agency said the bribe funds of ₹365.87 crore were utilised in real estate, investments in other properties, including foreign assets, gold bullion and for luxury expenditure, including liquor.
The agency stated in the letter that filing of a police FIR on these charges made by the ED was essential as laid down by the Supreme Court in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case of 2022.
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