Chennai, May 16 (PTI) The raids by the Enforcement Directorate in about 10 locations linked to state-owned TASMAC officials and others were only to "tarnish the image" of the ruling DMK, the party said on Friday.

Asserting that nothing was likely to emerge from the searches conducted in connection to the TASMAC-linked money laundering case, DMK spokesperson J Constandine Ravindran wondered if similar searches in the past established anything at all.

“These raids are meant to tarnish the image of the DMK government… only to create a bad name. Nothing would come out of the raids,” Ravindran told PTI.

The opposition AIADMK, however, claimed that the searches were conducted on the premises of those associated with the DMK’s first family.

“Series of raids by the Enforcement Directorate at the house of a friend of the DMK first family, and a relative of a state minister. TASMAC scam .. connect the dots,” the AIADMK said in a post on the social media platform X.

In Madurai, Tamil Nadu BJP chief Nainar Nagenthiran told reporters that the ED would not initiate raids for no reason.

Last month, V Senthil Balaji, who was holding the Prohibition portfolio, facing the heat of the ED raids, resigned from the state cabinet. PTI JSP ROH

PMLA money laundering probe prompts raids linked to TASMAC, sparking political claims of image-tarnishing and targeting. Enforcement Directorate searches were carried out in multiple locations in a TASMAC-linked money laundering investigation under the PMLA; the ruling party described the raids as politically motivated and unlikely to yield evidence, opposition parties alleged targeting of individuals close to the ruling circle, and a minister who previously held the prohibition portfolio resigned amid ED scrutiny.