"Politically-Driven Lies": Tamil Nadu Minister On Rs 1,020 Crore Bribery Allegations

Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration and Water Supplies Minister K N Nehru on Monday issued a strong, detailed rebuttal to the Enforcement Directorate's explosive allegation of a Rs 1,020-crore bribery and tender-fixing scam in his department. Calling the charges "politically driven lies" orchestrated by the AIADMK-BJP alliance ahead of elections, he declared that he would confront them legally and would not be intimidated.

"ED has become an extended wing of the BJP. Their fake allegations will be faced legally. My achievements give sleepless nights to the AIADMK-BJP alliance," he asserted.

Nehru also recalled that the High Court had already quashed the bank loan fraud case against his brother, which the ED claims led them to the current set of accusations. "The High Court said no offence had occurred. Even the ED's FIR based on that was quashed. Yet they keep reopening propaganda at the behest of the BJP," he said.

The Enforcement Directorate, in its communication to the Tamil Nadu DGP and the DVAC, urged registration of a fresh FIR against the Minister. The agency alleges that a network of corruption worth Rs 1,020 crore operated within the Municipal Administration Department. The ED claims that contractors paid between 7.5 per cent and 10 per cent of project values in bribes to secure contracts for the construction of toilets, civic projects, and outsourcing services.

Investigators say they uncovered a system in which tenders were allegedly manipulated even before opening, with contracts steered towards pre-selected companies. They allege that bribes were routed both in cash and through hawala channels. As evidence, the ED cites what it describes as a trove of digital material, including internal contract files and records of payments. Officials say these materials were discovered alongside more than 300 images and documents during the investigation into an unrelated bank loan scam. The agency also reminded that it had recently levelled allegations of a cash-for-jobs racket in the same department, claiming 150 government jobs were sold for Rs 25 to 35 lakh each - allegations Nehru had earlier rejected as entirely political.

In his elaborate Tamil statement, Nehru accused the BJP of weaponising central agencies because, he said, they could not tolerate the "Dravidian Model achievements" of his department. He highlighted that over the past five years, the state had laid 24,752 kilometres of roads. He pointed out that more than 1.22 crore people had been provided protected drinking water through new pipelines and schemes, while additional projects were underway to extend safe water access to another 77.28 lakh people.

He also emphasised civic improvements, including the creation of 1,762 public parks across municipalities, town panchayats and corporations - such as the recently inaugurated Semmozhi Poonga in Coimbatore.

Describing infrastructure upgrades, he noted the construction of 158 new bus stands statewide, and he contrasted Chennai's improved flood-management systems with the city's past record under AIADMK rule. He said the state had built 1,519 kilometres of stormwater drains to ensure that subways and key roads no longer flooded after rain. These achievements, he argued, were the real reason opposition parties and the ED were trying to discredit him.

The opposition AIADMK demanded the immediate removal of Nehru from the Cabinet.

Party spokesperson Kovai Sathyan told NDTV that Chief Minister M K Stalin could not continue to shelter ministers facing serious corruption allegations. He said that if a single department was facing bribery charges running into Rs 1,000 crore, the scale of corruption across 30 departments was unimaginable. According to him, the Chief Minister had lost all moral authority to continue in office.

The BJP also escalated its attack, insisting that the DGP must register an FIR immediately. BJP spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy told NDTV that a massive scam was clearly visible on the face of the documents cited by the ED. He said the government's silence was "shameful" and claimed corruption had become the defining feature of the Dravidian Model. He warned that if the police failed to act, the judiciary would intervene. Thirupathy argued that the ED had fulfilled its legal responsibility by informing the DGP, and that the state police now had no excuse for inaction.

The ruling DMK countered the allegations forcefully, accusing the BJP of misusing central agencies as political tools to target opponents in non-BJP states, especially ahead of elections. Party leaders argued that the BJP had no moral standing to raise corruption issues after the revelations surrounding Electoral Bonds. They pointed out that ED cases involving BJP allies often went dormant, while opposition leaders were aggressively pursued. They also underlined that no FIR could be filed solely based on ED's allegations, and insisted that the timing of the agency's actions clearly demonstrated political motives.