Ex-ministers house raided

MADURAI: Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) sleuths raided the residences of former Sc-hool Education Minister and DMK leader Thangam Thennarasu, his relatives and suspected benamies.A team of DVAC officials led by Rangarajan, DSP, Th-anjavur, searched the residence of the former minister and sitting MLA of Tiruchuzhi Thangam Thennarasu at Mallanginaru village in Viru-dhunagar district. Thenna-rasu was at the home when the search was conducted.Another team of DVAC officials, led by Rathinavel, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Pudukkottai, searched the residence of Balaguru, former aide of the minister, at K K Nagar East in Madurai.The search continued for over five hours. Sources said that incriminating docume-nts were siezed for further investigation. Balaguru’s residence at Kariappatti was also searched. Meanwhile, the residence of the Narikkudi Panchayat Union former president Papa Bose was searched by a team led by Sundararajan, DSP, Kanyakumari. Thangam Tennarasu’s father-in-law Muthusamy’s residence at Ottanchathiram in Dindigul district was also raided. The ex-minister’s house in Besant Nagar, Chennai was also searched.The DVAC, in a statement, said that based on specific information Thangam Thennarasu, during his term from 2006 to 2011, acquired property in his name and in the name of his family members to the tune of several lakhs.In the preliminary inquiry, a prima facie case had been registered that Thanagam Thennarasu had accumulat-ed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income to the tune of `82.97 lakh.The Virudhunagar detachment has registered a case on Feb 14 and investigations were on. Searches were made at six places, including three in Vi-rudhunagar , one each in Madurai, Dindigul and Che-nnai, including the residences of Thangam Thennarasu, his relatives and suspected benamies.