The Tamil Nadu farmers who were booked by ED on money laundering charges had Rs 450 in their accounts

In July 2023, when an envelope containing an Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons in an alleged money laundering case was delivered to Dalit farmer brothers Kannaiyan, 72, and Krishnan, 66, from Tamil Nadu’s Salem district, the brothers had only one It was a matter. His lawyer Dalitji Praveena said, he has Rs 450 in his bank account.

Apart from the fact that the senior residents of Attur own just 6.5 acres of land, what made the ED summons strange was that they were engaged in an ongoing dispute over agricultural land with G Gunasekhar, a senior leader of the BJP’s Salem East wing Had happened. BJP state spokesperson Narayanan Tirupati said both Gunasekhar and the brothers have filed complaints against each other for land grabbing. Gunasekhar was not available for comments.

Despite the ED now closing the case – following widespread criticism and outrage after the summons resurfaced on social media last week – the brothers’ troubles are far from over.

Despite the ED now closing the case – following widespread criticism and outrage after the summons resurfaced on social media last week – the brothers’ troubles are far from over.

Speaking to The Indian Express on Thursday evening, Krishnan said that he had filed a police complaint against Gunasekhar in the morning (January 4) for harassing him. “This morning, he and his team abused us, including using casteist abuses. We have been fighting a case of attempted land grab against Gunasekhar since 2020. He and his people did not allow us to cultivate our land for three years,” Krishnan said.

He said his elder brother Kannaiyan and he were forced to survive on a meager pension of Rs 1,000 per month and free ration of rice all these years.

His lawyer Praveena said, “The brothers were unable to cultivate their land for years due to threats from BJP leaders. He started plowing his land today for the first time in many years and yet, there was opposition from land mafias.

The brothers were booked for money laundering based on a 2017 incident, while they were acquitted in the same case by the trial court in 2021. The 2017 case related to the brothers erecting unauthorized electric fencing around their farm, which resulted in the death of two Indian bison. , ED sources told The Indian Express that the brothers’ 2021 acquittal was “ignored”.

BJP’s Tirupati told The Indian Express, “The party’s Salem leaders say that BJP has no role in the entire episode. The ED summons has nothing to do with the land dispute between Gunasekhar and the farmers. In fact, both sides have filed several cases against each other, including both civil and criminal. ED had registered a case against both the brothers in connection with the killing of two bison. The agency had collected details of the farmers from the state forest department and sent them summons.

Meanwhile, refusing to talk about why a case was registered against the elderly farmers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, a top ED source in Chennai said, “It is from our side There was a mistake. The entire issue was blown out of proportion on social media ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tamil Nadu.

The envelope containing the ED summons to the brothers also lists their caste as ‘Hindu Palar’, which was later included by the agency due to a “clerical error”.

Recalling his battle with the ED, Krishnan said his brother, his lawyer Praveena and he went to the agency’s Chennai office, about 250 km away, on July 5, 2023.

Krishnan said, “ED officials gave us two bundles of forms, each containing about 20 pages. Since we are illiterate, Praveena helped us fill them. Then, he was asked to leave so that they could interrogate us. This, despite us having already submitted our land records. When he told them that PMLA allows a lawyer to be present during interrogation, they became angry. He denied the existence of any such law and even tried to send it away. We told the ED officials that if they were not allowed to be present during the interrogation, we would leave.

Not allowed inside, Praveena said she called the nearby Nungambakkam police station for help.

“Citing the rules, the police team requested that I should be allowed inside. When ED officials refused, my clients decided not to cooperate with them. Before leaving the ED office, an officer shouted at us to call the police in the ED office. They said they would send summons again even though I had called Chief Minister MK Stalin. I recorded a video of him saying this and went to the DGP’s office, where I filed a case against him demanding action,” said Praveena.

Claiming that he did not get justice even from the state police, the lawyer alleged, “They refused to register an FIR on my complaint due to pressure from Delhi. They interrogated me for several hours on December 31 and then asked me to rewrite my complaint, but I refused to do so.

Responding to a question on Praveena’s allegations, a senior police officer said, “We asked her to file a proper complaint as she had given us a compilation of several incidents, both related and unrelated. Technically, it was impossible for us to file an FIR.

Praveena alleged, “The brothers were forced to mortgage their land to borrow Rs 50,000 to appear before the ED and other proceedings. And now, despite the PMLA case being baseless, these elderly people will have to pay it.

Meanwhile, her husband B Balamurugan, who is a deputy commissioner-rank officer of the GST and Central Excise department of Chennai (North), had written a letter to President Draupadi Murmu regarding the matter a few days ago. In his letter, he has demanded the dismissal of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for “turning the ED into an extended arm of the BJP”. Balamurugan has in the past accused his colleagues of imposing Hindi on him.