CHENNAI: Enforcement Directorate arrests yet another minister in Stalin's government after dusting off a corruption case. Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudi was taken into custody by the ED after a raid that lasted for several hours. The minister is currently taken to the ED office. It is reported that an unaccounted sum of Rs 70 lakhs and foreign exchange reserves of lakhs were seized from the house of the minister.

Today, ED conducted inspections at nine places including K Ponmudi's house in Villupuram. The raid started at seven in the morning. Ponmudi's son and Kallakurichi MP Gautam Sigamani's house and Surya Engineering College in Villupuram were searched.

ED conducted the lightning probe in the case of irregularities causing a loss of Rs 28 crore to the government exchequer while Ponmudi was a minister. In the case registered 11 years ago, the complaint is that the minister had illegally granted quarrying to his son and his friends. Gautham Sigamani, the son of K Ponmudi, had already been targeted by the ED on account of foreign exchange earnings.

The ED search was conducted when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin was about to leave to attend a meeting of opposition parties in Bengaluru. Earlier, the ED investigation and his arrest related to Minister Senthil Balaji were very controversial in the state. Another minister is arrested by ED when the first incident is yet to settle down. Senthil Balaji was arrested for a job fraud which happened when he was the transport minister during the AIADMK regime.