The Madras High Court has sentenced Tamil Nadu DMK cabinet member K Ponmudi to three years in prison in the case of illegal acquisition of property. Along with Ponmudi, his wife Visalakshi has also been sentenced to the same punishment. Apart from imprisonment for three years, both have to pay a fine of Rs 50 lakh. The punishment of the High Court is in the corruption case filed by vigilance against Ponmudi, who held the post of Minister of Higher Education and Mining Department between 2006-2011. Although the trial court had acquitted Ponmudi, the High Court voluntarily recalled the said case and sentenced the DMK minister to imprisonment and fine. Ponmudi had to resign from the ministry after receiving a three-year prison sentence. If the Supreme Court does not grant a stay on the sentence, he will lose his MLA post in addition to his ministership. He cannot even contest the elections. The court has given Ponmudi and his wife 30 days to file an appeal.

Corruption allegations and vigilance investigations against ministers are common in the country. However, it is very rare that ministers are punished in such a case. The help and support of the government in command will always be available for the accused minister. Most of them are able to get away with the case by dragging the case for years, influencing the witnesses and destroying the evidence. Jayalalithaa has a history of being convicted in a case of illegal acquisition of wealth when she was the Chief Minister. She also served a few months in jail.

The case alleges that Ponmudi illegally acquired assets worth Rs 1.72 crore during his tenure as a minister between 2006 and 2011. Vigilance filed the case in 2011, and the trial court's judgment came in 2016. The trial court had acquitted Ponmudi but the Madras High Court later intervened and re-examined the case stating that the trial court erred. There is evidence that illegal acquisition of property is evident from the documents submitted by Ponmudi regarding the property details. Ponmudi had argued that this was an error in calculating his and his wife's income together, but the court did not accept it.

73-year-old Ponmudi is the second minister to leave Stalin's cabinet. The conviction of Ponmudi, who is highly influential as a senior leader in the illegal acquisition case, will tarnish the image of the cabinet. Minister for Electricity Senthil Balaji, who was arrested by the ED in the money laundering case, has been in jail for six months. As Senthil has not yet been sentenced, he is still kept on non-department status in the Cabinet. The High Court has taken up the cases against three other ministers on charges of corruption. They were also acquitted by the trial court. Apart from them, the cases of three members of the former cabinet are also on the re-examination list of the High Court. These are just a few examples of how power becomes a license for corruption.