DMK hits out at TVK govt over DVAC raids

THe oppositeness Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on fri slammed the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) o'er the searches conducted by the board of directors of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in the residences of former government minister EV Velu stating that is to “exact revenge on those who work for the welfare of the people”.The agency conducted searches in the residences of the senior DMK leader in Chennai along with those of the 10 officials who had served the highways department in 2022.EV Velu said, “In the Assembly (on June 23), the newly-appointed chief minister C Joseph Vijay was responding to the Governor’s address. At that time, he deliberately mentioned a specific period from 2017 to 2026 and made some baseless allegations without any proof.”“I stood up at that moment and told him to speak with evidence. I said that if such an allegation is to be made, the evidence must first be shown to the Speaker before levelling the charge — that has been the tradition followed until now. I continuously raised this objection,” Velu told reporters.Claiming that the assembly speaker JCD Prabhakar denied to provide any permission to him to speak, Velu said, “After that we walked out of the assembly peacefully. However, it is solely based on the questions I asked him that day, they have conducted a raid at my residential properties. It is only for political revenge against me that they are doing this”.“By doing these things (DVAC conducting raids), the ruling government thinks that we will get scared. We belong to the DMK and this movement has faced MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) itself and we will not be afraid of this”, he said.Velu said that he will prove his innocence in court. “You can conduct raids, you can file cases, there is a court of law. The court is our ultimate hope and I will definitely prove that I am innocent in the Court. I have done nothing wrong and repeating a lie multiple times does not make it as truth.”Responding to the comments, TVK minister A Rajmohan said, “We have not engaged in any political vendetta. This action has been taken based on proper grounds and evidence. One must face this with courage. Face it legally.”Rajmohan added, “When a department takes action regarding an unrelated complaint received against him, he claims that it was done out of revenge. This cannot be done without a proper basis. He is caught with solid evidence.”The Tamil Nadu Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption on Thursday registered a case against former state highways minister EV Velu, 10 department officials, and a private contracting firm for their alleged involvement in a multi-crore road construction fraud.The FIR registered by the DVAC Special Investigation Cell names Velu alongside several high-ranking highway engineers, divisional accountants, and a Karur-based contractor.