While Tamil Nadu Rural Development Minister and senior DMK leader I Periyasamy, the 72-year-old strongman from Dindigul, has kept a low profile during the last four years of the M K Stalin-led party government in the state, he has come under the spotlight in recent days.
Last Saturday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at the premises of Periyasamy and his family members, including his son and DMK MLA I P Senthil Kumar, in Dindigul, his home turf, and Chennai.
The ED’s action was dubbed “politically-motivated” by the DMK, which argued that it came just a few months after the BJP and the AIADMK formed their alliance for the state Assembly elections slated for April 2026.
Top sources in the DMK government alleged that Periyasamy was raided by the ED as “the AIADMK-BJP combine have decided to target the DMK strongmen who hold sway in districts and are critical to election funding and mobilisation for the party”. “At least six DMK heavyweights, who are known to marshal resources at scale during campaigns, would be under watch in this regard,” a DMK minister claimed.
Although Periyasamy has been a low-key DMK figure in the Stalin dispensation as compared to his stint during the period of the late party patriarch K Karunanidhi, he wields enormous clout in Dindigul which he has maintained for decades. He is known as one of the DMK’s most rooted district satraps.
The DMK camp pointed out that the ED’s raids at the Periyasamy family’s properties came just two days ahead of a hearing in the Supreme Court on a plea filed by them.
On Monday, the Supreme Court stayed a Madras High Court’s April order which revived a 2012 disproportionate assets case against Periyasamy, his wife, and two sons – including Senthil Kumar, the two-term DMK MLA from Dindigul’s Palani – setting aside the 2017 discharge order of a trial court in the case.
The ED however released a statement stating that there were seizures of documents and digital devices from its last week’s raids at the Periyasamy family’s premises and at Irulappa Mills India Pvt Ltd, a Dindigul-based company where Periyasamy and his younger son are directors.
What are the cases?
The legal cloud now hanging over Periyasamy involves two separate cases: one, a probe into the alleged illegal allotment of Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) plots in 2008, and, two, the more recent disproportionate assets case that led to the ED’s raids.
First case
The first case lodged against Periyasamy alleges that as the housing minister in 2008, he oversaw “irregular” allotment of a high-income group plot by the TNHB to Ganesan, the personal security officer of the then chief minister Karunanidhi. The state government’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) registered the case against him in 2011, after the AIADMK swept to power under J Jayalalithaa.
What followed was more than a decade of litigation. The then Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal granted sanction for Periyasamy’s prosecution in 2012, which he contested while arguing that only the Governor could do so. His discharge plea was rejected by a trial court in 2016, which was upheld by both the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court in 2022. In March 2023, a special court discharged him in the matter.
However, in April this year, high court judge Justice N Anand Venkatesh overturned Periyasamy’s discharge, transferred the case to a special court for the MPs and MLAs, and ordered daily hearings with warnings of judicial custody if the accused delayed proceedings. “The public must see that no one, however powerful, can escape trial,” the judge observed.
Second case
The second case against Periyasamy stems from a 2012 DVAC chargesheet that accused him and his family of amassing assets worth about Rs 2 crore, allegedly disproportionate to their known sources of income, during his tenure as the revenue and prisons minister. A special court in Dindigul had discharged him and his family, but the high court set aside the discharge in April 2025.
The ED’s weekend raids brought this case against the DMK minister back in focus. The agency officials alleged they uncovered “paper (dummy) companies” linked to Irulappa Mills, indicating attempts at “laundering funds”. While the investigation into the case has continued, the DMK renewed its charge that the central agencies were allegedly going after its leaders at the behest of the BJP-led Centre.
What is Periyasamy’s salience?
In the 2021 Assembly elections, Periyasamy garnered the largest winning margin in the state, 135,571 votes, to retain his Athoor seat in Dindigul. In the 2011 polls, when the DMK was routed across the state, finishing with just
23 of 234 seats, he still managed to win Athoor by about 54,000 votes. Only the then incumbent CM Karunanidhi had a similar winning margin among the party MLAs – clinching his Tiruvarur seat by over 50,000 votes – as the party was decimated in the wake of the 2G spectrum scam.
DMK sources said Periyasamy’s dominance in Dindigul “powers the party to pick at least four seats” in the region. In the rough and tumble of Tamil Nadu politics, this makes him crucial for the DMK: a “votebank custodian” in a region where the BJP has been attempting social engineering for about a decade. He also belongs to the dominant Thevar (OBC) community.
And yet, despite his political heft, Periyasamy has largely avoided the limelight during the Stalin regime. Unlike other ministers, he has seldom been the public face of the government. Those close to him describe him as a “cautious leader shaped by years of legal battles and by his district-first instincts”.
DMK ministers under scanner
Several DMK ministers have faced raids by the central agencies in connection with various cases – mostly in the first year of the party-led government – who include Stalin’s close aide and minister EV Velu, then minister K Ponmudy, party heavyweight K Senthil Balaji, and party veteran S Jagathrakshakan. Balaji, an accused in a cash-for-jobs scam, had been in prison for about 14 months.
In these cases, the DMK has accused the BJP of allegedly “leaning” on the central agencies to weaken its satraps. “Our fear has not been conviction but disruption: senior ministers tied up in hearings, raids, and bail pleas; cadres demoralised by headlines; CM Stalin’s attention diverted,” a DMK insider said.
A senior DMK minister alleged, “These cases are meant to diminish DMK’s influence, not necessarily to secure convictions.” DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan had said earlier, “Those aligning with the NDA are spared (from these raids), those opposing it are not.”
On its part, the BJP has refuted such allegations, maintaining that the agencies work independently as per the law.
For Stalin, the challenge has also been about balancing optics with loyalty. Removing Balaji from his Cabinet was politically untenable for the DMK in Karur. Similarly, sidelining Periyasamy may spark a blowback for the party in Dindigul.