Chennai: Tamil Nadu's anti-corruption wing fanned out to 25 locations across the state on Thursday morning, all of them tied to former minister and DMK leader K N Nehru.
The case is an alleged Rs 634-crore cash-for-jobs racket in the Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) department. The allegation is that money was collected from candidates in exchange for government jobs during Nehru's tenure as minister.
At the searched premises, officials went through documents, financial records and other material. The aim, they said, is to trace the money trail and to gather evidence on how the recruitment was run.
The FIR was registered on the directions of the Madras High Court, which ordered a full-fledged probe on the basis of material shared by the Enforcement Directorate. The ED had flagged the alleged irregularities to the state police in October 2025.
Thursday's searches came a day after Nehru moved the Supreme Court, filing a special leave petition against the High Court's order of October 26, which dismissed his review petition challenging the registration of the FIR.
Tamil Nadu has seen a widening set of probes against former ministers since the change of government. Earlier this week, former school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi was arrested in a Rs 100-crore private school approval scam, and the Central Crime Branch searched the Perungudi home of a textile businesswoman in that case.
There was no immediate official reaction from the DMK to Thursday's searches. It was also not known whether Nehru has responded to the allegations afresh.
DVAC teams are now sifting the material seized. Investigators have not said how long the exercise will take or whether more locations are on the list.