Enforcement Directorate officials conducting a raid at Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation headquarters in Chennai. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Thursday (April 24, 2025) summoned top officials in the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) including its Managing Director and IAS officer S. Visakan in the alleged ₹1,000 crore liquor scam.
A day after the Madras High Court dismissed writ petitions filed by the Tamil Nadu government challenging searches conducted by the central agency in early March, the ED issued fresh summons to the officers to appear before the investigation officer, official sources said.
The officials, whose statements were recorded by the ED at the time of the searches, had sought more time to appear while responding to the summons issued earlier in the case. In the meantime, the plea of the State and Tasmac to declare as illegal the search and seizure operation was dismissed by the court, the sources said.
The ED had conducted searches at multiple locations across the State on March 6, 2025, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, for various offences related to Tasmac and its associated entities/persons.
The operation was based on several FIRs registered by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The alleged offences included Tasmac shops collecting money over and above the market retail price, distillery companies offering kickbacks to officials for supply orders, senior officials indulging in collection of bribes from the retail liquor shops and for transfer/posting of staff etc.
During the searches on Tasmac establishments, investigating officials seized incriminating data related to the offences, including indent orders favouring a few distillery companies, manipulation of tender conditions in the allocation of bar licences, and excess charge of ₹10-30 per bottle by the liquor outlets, involving the officials.
Large-scale fraud
The ED said the searches revealed large-scale financial fraud involving distillery companies – SNJ, Kals, Accord, SAIFL, and Shiva Distillery – along with bottling entities such as Devi Bottles, Crystal Bottles, and GLR Holding, “thereby exposing a well-orchestrated scheme of unaccounted cash generation and illicit payments.”
The agency said investigations reveal that distilleries systematically inflated expenses and fabricated bogus purchases, particularly through bottle-making companies, to siphon off over ₹1,000 crore in unaccounted cash. These funds were then used for kickbacks to secure increased supply orders from Tasmac.
Other officials summoned for questioning by the ED included General Managers S. Sangeetha, T. Rama Duraimurugan and Deputy General Manager Jothi Shankar, the sources added.
Published – April 25, 2025 07:42 am IST
