TN BJP's DMK Files 2' fill up a huge trunk

Chennai: DMK Files 2, a voluminous compendium of papers and documents related to the alleged corruption of Rs 5600 crore by the DMK Government and the supposed evidence on the suspected benami connections of the Chief Minister’s family, Ministers, MPs and MLAs, was taken to Raj Bhavan in a huge tin trunk by BJP State President K Annamalai and his acolytes on Wednesday.

The BJP team also presented a memorandum to Governor R N Ravi seeking his intervention and suitable action on the DMK Files part 2 that was handed over to him in the trunk in a style that was in stark contrast to the release of DMK Files Part 1 that was brought out in the digital form and was released to the media at the party office.

Among the allegations made by Annamalai through the DMK Files 2 were a Rs 3000 crore scam relating to Elnet Technologies Limited (ETL) Infrastructure Services Limited, another Rs 2000 crore scam in the State transport department and a Rs 600 crore scam in Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC), according to a tweet by Annamalai.

The details of the alleged irregularities committed by the DMK government and the family members of the Chief Minister would be explained to media persons during the ‘padayatra’ that he would be taking out across the State from Friday, the tweet said.

In a video attached to the tweet, it said that one family – that of the Chief Minister - had swindled several lakhs of crores of rupees and displayed photographs of many family members. Then it shows many old documents and newspaper cuttings and raises a plethora of questions, pointing fingers at the DMK.

It contains an audio recording of an agent’s conversation with the Minister’s assistant on the payment of an alleged bribe to the tune of over a crore of rupees and lists benami land dealings, besides naming other Ministers in the government.

Though it was earlier said that Annamalai would meet media persons after handing over the files to the Governor, he drove off from Raj Bhavan, leaving the Vice President of the BJP State unit, Karu Nagarajan, at the gates to handle the waiting media brigade.

Nagarajan said that Annamalai would address the media during his ‘En Mann, En Makkal’ (My Land, My People) yatra, starting from July 28 at Rameswaram with Union Home Minister Amit Shah flagging it off.

He said the State BJP had prepared a White Paper on the closing down liquor shops in the State drawing out plans for alternative sources of revenue to the exchequer and also on lifting the ban on toddy, which they wanted to hand over to the Chief Minister.

Though they had written to the Chief Minister seeking an appointment to hand over the proposal, there was reply from the government for the past 25 days and hence that White Paper was also given to the Governor for possible action, Nagarajan said.

DMK Files Part 2 has details of nine State Ministers, including their benami dealings, properties and other transactions along the evidence, he said.

The video lists the alleged irregularities that had taken place after the present government came to power in 2021. One relates to Paramount Pesticides Limited a Meerut based company that supplied pesticides to the medical services corporation faking a Chennai address and committing a fraud of Rs 300 crore annually.

Within an hour of Annamalai’s meeting with the Governor, the hashtag #Annamalai, along with #DMKFiles2 and #RNRavi started trending on Twitter and Facebook users, too, started posting comments. One of them posted an old photograph of some members of the Karunanidhi family, in which all of them are barefoot, and commented that the family that was so poor once had amassed so much wealth now.