Rs 1,000-Crore TASMAC Scam Rocks Tamil Nadu, DMK Minister Under Lens
DMK minister V Senthil Balaji said, "I will face this legally. The specific FIR details mentioned in the ED statement are missing. There are no irregularities. They are creating an image as if there are irregularities."
After Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, another liquor scam is unfolding—this time in Tamil Nadu. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has reportedly unearthed a nexus involving DMK Minister V Senthil Balaji and other senior politicians of the ruling DMK.
Balaji, who currently oversees the Electricity, Prohibition, and Excise portfolios, is under scrutiny as ED raids reveal alleged collusion between officials, politicians, and distillery owners. Distilleries across Tamil Nadu systematically inflated expenses and created fake purchases, primarily through bottle-making companies, diverting around Rs 1,000 crore into unaccounted funds and shell companies. These illicit proceeds were channelled into kickbacks to secure inflated supply orders from Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (TASMAC).
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Balaji said, “I will face this legally. The specific FIR details mentioned in the ED statement are missing. There are no irregularities. They are creating an image as if there are irregularities."
The investigation by the central agency, prompting multiple raids across state-owned organisations, including TASMAC and related premises, unearthed an alleged illegal nexus among politicians, including cabinet ministers, bureaucrats, and businessmen. The scam mirrors a similar one witnessed in Chhattisgarh.
STATE-OWNED TASMAC’S INVOLVEMENT
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in its statement, said: “During the search action in the offices of TASMAC, incriminating data related to transfer postings, transport tender, bar licence tender, indent orders favouring a few distillery companies, excess charge of Rs 10-30 per bottle by the TASMAC outlets involving the officials of TASMAC, among other evidence, have been recovered."
Evidence from the allocation of bar licence tenders by TASMAC also indicates significant manipulation of tender conditions. The tenders were awarded to applicants lacking essential documentation, such as GST/PAN numbers and proper KYC details. Further, several communications have surfaced showing direct interactions between distillery companies and senior TASMAC officials, indicating efforts to secure inflated indent orders and gain undue favours.
“A glaring issue is the mismatch between the KYC details of the applicant and the Demand Draft (DD), suggesting that the final successful bidder did not even obtain the requisite DD before the application deadline. Additionally, tenders were awarded despite having only a single applicant in the final bid. TASMAC paid over Rs 100 crore annually to transporters," the statement said.
MODUS OPERANDI: FRAUDULENT EXPENSE INFLATION & KICKBACK
Investigations, according to sources in the Enforcement Directorate (ED), have uncovered a massive financial fraud involving distillery companies—SNJ, Kals, Accord, SAIFL, and Shiva Distillery—alongside bottling firms such as Devi Bottles, Crystal Bottles, and GLR Holding.
This well-coordinated scheme facilitated the generation of unaccounted cash and illicit payments. Distilleries systematically inflated expenses and fabricated bogus purchases, particularly through bottle-making companies, laundering over Rs 1,000 crore in unaccounted funds. These illicit funds were funnelled into kickbacks to secure inflated supply orders from TASMAC.
Bottling companies played a central and most important role by inflating sales figures, enabling distilleries to route excess payments. These payments were then withdrawn in cash, with commissions deducted before being returned. The collusion between distilleries and bottling companies involved manipulation of financial records, concealed cash flows, and systematic evasion of regulations.
A senior Enforcement Directorate (ED) official said further investigations are focusing on the involvement of TASMAC employees, associates from the distillery and bottling sectors, and other key players in this extensive fraud network.
These findings, he added, expose a deliberate scheme to generate unaccounted cash, which was then used to drive substantial profits and secure unfair advantages in the tender and supply processes.
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