Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration Minister K N Nehru on Monday launched a blistering counter-attack against the Enforcement Directorate’s allegation that a Rs 1,020-crore bribery and tender-rigging racket operated under his watch. Dismissing the charges as “politically driven lies” engineered by the AIADMK-BJP alliance ahead of elections, Nehru vowed to fight the accusations legally and declared that the ED had become “an extended wing of the BJP.”

The ED, in a formal letter to the Tamil Nadu DGP and DVAC, demanded registration of a fresh FIR against the senior DMK leader, claiming contractors paid 7.5–10 per cent of project value as bribes to secure contracts for toilets, civic infrastructure, and outsourcing services. The agency alleges tenders were pre-decided, contracts steered to favoured firms, and bribes routed through cash and hawala channels, with digital evidence reportedly recovered during an unrelated bank loan fraud probe.

Nehru highlighted that the Madras High Court had already quashed the original bank fraud case against his brother – the very case the ED claims triggered the current investigation. He accused central agencies of repeatedly reopening dismissed matters at the BJP’s behest, insisting that his department’s transformative achievements – 24,752 km of new roads, protected water supply to 1.22 crore citizens, 1,762 new parks, 158 bus stands, and 1,519 km of stormwater drains – were giving “sleepless nights” to the opposition.

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Opposition parties wasted no time in demanding Nehru’s immediate removal from the cabinet. AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan asserted that a single department facing Rs 1,000-crore corruption allegations exposed unimaginable rot across the government, while BJP’s Narayanan Thirupathy warned that judicial intervention would follow if police failed to register an FIR, describing the government’s silence as “shameful.”

The ruling DMK rallied behind Nehru, branding the ED action a textbook case of central agency misuse against non-BJP states, especially during election season. Party leaders pointed to dormant cases against BJP allies and the Electoral Bonds controversy to question the Centre’s moral authority, maintaining that no FIR can be registered solely on ED allegations and that the timing betrayed clear political orchestration.

Also Read: ED Seeks FIR Against TN Minister KN Nehru Over Rs 1,020 Crore Corruption Allegations