File Photo: Former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran (Press Trust of India)
Former union minister Dayanidhi Maran, whose property and bank accounts worth Rs. 740 crore were seized on Wednesday in a money laundering case, has called the action by the Enforcement Directorate illegal and driven by "someone's" vendetta.
"The ED had attached property that I had acquired in 2002-2003, even before the alleged crime. The fixed deposits they've frozen are my own earnings. The ED is trying to please someone," Mr Maran told NDTV.
He claimed that the law only allows the attaching of property acquired from the proceeds of a crime.
"The Enforcement Directorate has released to the media a long list of attached properties. This (action) seems to have been done at the behest of someone due to political vendetta," he added.
The CBI alleges that in 2005, Mr Maran misused his post as Union Telecom Minister to coerce the sale of telecom company Aircel to Maxis, a Malaysia-based group, in exchange for "illegal gratification" of nearly 750 crores.
A portion of the money, the CBI alleges, was invested in a media company which is part of the Sun Group, owned by Mr Maran's brother Kalanithi.
A separate case of money-laundering was registered against the Marans by the Enforcement Directorate. Among the series of bank accounts and properties seized yesterday was a fixed deposit worth Rs. 100 crore in the name of Kalanithi Maran and the family's palatial house in Chennai's Boat Club area.
Mr Maran is a leader of the DMK, which is mired in multiple financial scandals.
Its leader and Mr Maran's successor in the telecom ministry, A Raja, is being tried for criminal conspiracy and corruption for allegedly giving mobile network licenses and free airwaves to companies in exchange of bribes. Another party leader, Kanimozhi, is also being investigated.