Madras High Court quashes money laundering proceedings against former DMK Minister Ponmudy, son Gowtham Sigamani

The Madras High Court on Tuesday (October 13, 2026) quashed money laundering proceedings initiated by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) against former DMK Minister K. Ponmudy, his son Gowtham Sigamani, and five others on the basis of a ₹28.37-crore red sand quarrying case.

The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan quashed the proceedings initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, as the petitioners were acquitted from the sand quarrying case on April 2, 2026.

The orders were passed on a batch of writ petitions, which had challenged the continuance of the PMLA proceedings even after the acquittal of the petitioners from the predicate offence.

What is the case about?

In his plea, Mr. Ponmudy said, the Villupuram District Crime Branch police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against him, his son, and others on September 23, 2012. The case was registered under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the law pertaining to mines and minerals.

The charge against them was that when Mr. Ponmudy served as Minister for Mines and Minerals between 2007 and 2011, he had entered into a criminal conspiracy and awarded licences to his son, the latter’s friend, Mr. Sigamani’s brother-in-law, and others for quarrying red sand.

The charge sheet claimed the licencees had quarried red sand over and above the permitted quantity, without paying seigniorage fees to the State government. Thereby, they had caused a loss of ₹28.37 crore to the public exchequer, and the act had led to a corresponding wrongful gain for them.

However, after a full-fledged trial, the Villupuram Principal District and Sessions Court on April 2, 2026, acquitted all seven of them, and held that the prosecution had failed to establish any nexus between the grant of quarry lease and alleged illegal gain or conspiracy.

The trial court also observed the prosecution had failed to prove the charge of conspiracy or abuse of official position against the former Minister. It concluded that the alleged revenue loss figures were speculative and unsupported by primary data, Mr. Ponmudy told the High Court.

Now that all the seven accused had been acquitted from the predicate offence, nothing would survive for the ED to continue prosecution for the charge of money laundering connected to that case, he said, and urged the High Court to quash the PMLA proceedings pending before a sessions court in Chennai.