Former DMK Minister E.V. Velu, son E.V. Kumaran seek anticipatory bail in lake bed mining case

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Former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Minister E.V. Velu, 76, and his son E.V. Kumaran, 48, have filed anticipatory bail petitions before the Madras High Court in a case registered against them for allegedly excavating 45,72,058 cubic feet of sand from Malappambadi lake in Tiruvannamalai district to level the venue for the party’s north zone youth wing conference held on December 14, 2025.

Justice V. Lakshminarayanan on Friday (October 9, 2026) accepted a request made by State Public Prosecutor R. John Sathyan to grant time till Tuesday (October 13) for filing written objections on behalf of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC). The judge orally advised the prosecution not to take any coercive action until then, since the first petitioner was a septuagenarian.

The petitioners had chosen to seek advance bail, through their counsel Rahul Balaji, after the judge, earlier this week, rejected their plea for ex parte interim relief in two other petitions filed by them, urging the court to quash the First Information Report (FIR) registered against them.

The DVAC registered the FIR on September 24, 2026, on the basis of a complaint lodged by Jayaram Venkatesan from the anti-corruption organisation Arappor Iyakkam. The complainant had alleged that the excavation was carried out on about eight acres of the waterbody in and around November 2025 to level land belonging to a private company of which Mr. Kumaran was one of the directors.

It was claimed that the alleged illegal excavation had resulted in a loss of ₹8.22 crore to the public exchequer. However, both petitioners claimed they were innocent and had not committed any offence as alleged by the complainant. In his petition, Mr. Velu said that there was no overt act attributed to him in the complaint and that there was no specific allegation that he had influenced any government official during his stint as Minister last year.

“The allegation that the petitioner’s son E.V. Kumaran was responsible for the alleged excavation of gravel/lake-bed material is a hypothetical allegation, the mere fact that unauthorised excavation or mining is alleged to have taken place does not, by itself, furnish any basis to attribute the commission of such offence to the petitioner or his son,” his advance bail petition read.

Pointing out that he was the Minister of State Highways, Minor Ports and Public Works departments during the previous DMK regime, Mr. Velu said that even according to the complainant, Malappambadi lake was under the control of the Revenue, Corporation, and geology and mining authorities, none of whom were under his portfolio.

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