Tamil Nadu News: ED Grills TASMAC MD Visakan In ₹1,000 Crore Liquor Scam Case (VIDEO)

Chennai: In what could potentially spell big trouble for the DMK Government, sleuths of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Friday took away the Visakan, an IAS officer and the Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) for recording his statement in connection with an alleged Rs 1,000 crore liquor scam. The TASMAC enjoys monopoly in retail vending Indian Made Foreign Liquor.

Chennai, Tamil Nadu: The Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at eight locations in Chennai, including the residence of TASMAC MD Visakan and offices linked to filmmaker Akash Baskaran, in connection with a ₹1,000 crore liquor scam. Officials confirmed the raids are related… pic.twitter.com/7os6KTEsbT

— IANS (@ians_india) May 16, 2025

Earlier in the day, Visakan was questioned for several hours at his house and searches were conducted in the premises as well as those of other officials of the TASMAC. Shortly after he was taken away by the ED to its office in Nungambakkam, video clips and images of discarded sheets of paper purportedly containing printouts of Visakan’s mobile phone chat conversations with several unidentified persons emerged. The chats had details on him passing on information about the TASMAC’s tender and related affairs to the recipients. The sheets of paper were reportedly found near his house.

The ED also conducted searches at the house of a film producer who is the son-in-law of a well known entrepreneur and a close friend of some key politicians in the ruling party. Sources said another influential man, who is close to a senior politician’s son, managed to escape before the ED knocked on his doors in a super luxurious apartment in Foreshore Estate. “He is believed to have boarded a flight to Dubai,” a source said.

The ED case stems from 40 FIRs registered previously by the State Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The DVAC had closed many of these FIRs for want of evidence.

However, in March this year, the ED had targetted the TASMAC conducting a search at its headquarters after it registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The case deals with alleged siphoning off of money from liquor trade, which is estimated at Rs 1,000 crore.

The State had moved the Madras High Court to stall the ED searches. The central agency has now come after the court allowed it to proceed and the same was endorsed by the Supreme Court.

The ED had claimed the earlier searches had revealed large-scale financial fraud involving certain distillery companies “exposing a well-orchestrated scheme of unaccounted cash generation and illicit payments.”