BJP State President Nainar Nagenthran. File
| Photo Credit: E. Lakshmi Narayanan
Tamil Nadu BJP president Nainar Nagenthran, on Thursday (July 16, 2026), appeared before a court in George Town Court complex, Chennai and received the copy of the charge sheet in connection with the case relating to seizure of ₹3.99 crore from one of his staff on the Nellai Express train ahead of 2024 Parliamentary elections.
On April 6, 2024, the Flying Squad Team (FST) seized ₹3.99 crore from three men aboard Nellai Express, at Tambaram. Police alleged the trio said the cash was being taken for distribution to voters in Tirunelveli based on the instruction of Nainar Nagenthran who was contesting as BJP candidate.
The flying squad officials informed the Tambaram police, who registered a case and arrested the trio. One among the three arrested, S. Sathish (33), was the manager of the hotel Blue Diamond in Purasawalkam, owned by Mr. Nagenthran, and was also a member of the BJP. The other two are S. Naveen (26) and S. Perumal (26).
Based on a complaint, the trio was booked and arrested. The recovered cash was handed over to the tahsildar after informing the Income Tax Department. A couple of weeks later, the case was transferred to the Crime Branch CID (CB-CID). The CB-CID filed the charge sheet against 13 persons including Mr. Nagenthran and BJP’s former organising secretary Kesava Vinayagam.
On Thursday, Mr. Nagenthran and others appeared before the magistrate and received the copies of the charge sheet. The court adjourned the matter to July 30 for further hearing and directed them to appear on that day.
Later talking to reporters, Mr. Nagenthran said, “We were served a copy of the charge sheet today. The court has directed us to appear again on the 30th. This is a false case that was registered with political motives during the DMK regime. We expected the new government to withdraw the case. However, no such action has been taken,” he said.
Published – July 16, 2026 05:48 pm IST
