CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister Ponmudy and his wife Visalakshi have been awarded three years jail term and fined Rs 50 lakh in a disproportionate assets case. The High Court order quashed a 2016 verdict from a lower court acquitting the minister.

The Madras High Court had found the minister and his wife guilty under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Subsequently, he has been disqualified from the post of MLA. The case dates back to the DMK's 2006-2011 regime when the convicted leader had accumulated about Rs 2 crore in assets. Whenever DMK came to power after 1989, Ponmudy has been a minister.

His jail term has been suspended for 30 days to allow him to appeal his conviction in the Supreme Court. The court clarified that the approach would have been different if it had been any other minister. The court also pointed out that this is an issue that affects future generations.

Last July, the ED had questioned Ponmudy and his son Gautam Sigamani, MP from Kallakurichi, in a money laundering case related to illegal sand mining in 2011. The ED alleged that Ponmudy violated the Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral Concessions Act between 2006 and 2011 when he was the Minister of Mines and Minerals. It is also alleged that he had allowed an illegal quarry in Poothura in Vanur block.