The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has attached Rs 34.7 lakh available in the bank account of the Udayanidhi Stalin Foundation in connection with a money laundering investigation. Properties worth Rs 36.3 crore have also been attached across Tamil Nadu, the investigation agency said in a tweet.

The foundation was launched by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin in 2021. Udhayanidhi Stalin is also the minister for Youth Welfare and Sports in Tamil Nadu Cabinet.

The first information report in the case stated that the complainant Gaurav Chachra, director of Pettigo Comercio Internacional, a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based Lyca Group, had been defrauded of Rs 114.37 crore by the Kallal Group and its directors/founders – Saravanan Palaniappan, Vijaykumaran, Aravinth Raj and Vijay Ananth along with Lakshmi Muthuraman and Preetha Vijayananth.

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The Lyca Group has a significant presence in India and its entertainment company, Lyca Productions, has been involved in the making of Tamil epic films Ponniyin Selvan: I and Ponniyin Selvan: II.

On Saturday, the Enforcement Directorate in a statement said that the fraud was actually worth Rs 300 crore as the Lyca Group “had also made other investments/loans to the accused and its entities without any due diligence or rationale”.

The central agency said it conducted searches at the premises of both the accused and the complainant on April 27 and May 16. This “led to the discovery of various incriminating evidence in the form of digital evidence, documents, properties, suspicious cash and hawala transactions which are still under the ED scanner and investigations”, according to the statement.

The Enforcement Directorate alleged that the Udayanidhi Stalin Foundation had “received proceeds of crime” worth Rs 1 crore. “The trustees of the foundation failed to explain the rationale for the receipt from the parties involved in the case,” it added.