Vellore: The DMK General Secretary and Tamil Nadu Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan’s home was raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for eleven hours on Friday in the Vellore area. The operation ended at 1:35 AM after starting on Friday afternoon.

As part of its continuing investigation into a suspected money laundering case linked to bank officials’ cheating during the demonetization phase and breaches of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) standards, the ED carried out the search at Duraimurugan’s home.

The ED conducted searches at four places in the Vellore district of Tamil Nadu that were linked to Duraimurugan and other suspects.

The ED is looking into claims that bank employees cheated and violated RBI regulations by allowing the illicit exchange of Rs 200 notes for Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes during the demonetization process. This approach made it possible for people to get around government regulations meant to stop the spread of counterfeit money and black money.

In an attempt to determine the scope of these anomalies and the individuals involved, the ED conducted searches, including those at sites linked to Duraimurugan.

In order to combat terrorism and left-wing extremism, flush out black money, eradicate Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), transform the non-formal economy into a formal one in order to increase employment and the tax base, and significantly accelerate the digitization of payments in order to reduce the amount of cash in India’s economy, the Center decided on November 8, 2016, to remove the legal tender status of currency notes with denominations of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500.