The story so far: The Madras High Court, on Friday (Feb 20, 2026), directed the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) to register a First Information Report (FIR) regarding the cash-for-jobs scam in the Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) department.
The FIR was ordered to be booked on the basis of a 232-page dossier that the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) had shared with the Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) on October 27, 2025 and submitted before the Madras High Court in a sealed cover on February 5, 2026. The Hindu has accessed the 232-page dossier as well as another 258-page dossier to find out what exactly had the ED unearthed.
How did the ED collect materials related to the alleged cash-for-jobs and tender scams?
The ED had conducted searches at 14 premises in Chennai, Tiruchi and Coimbatore on April 7, 2025 in connection with a bank fraud case booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against True Value Homes. This is a real estate firm run by Municipal Administration Minister K.N. Nehru’s brother N. Ravichandran in his capacity as its managing director.
Then, the ED had registered a Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) for probing the possibility of offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2002 too having been committed using the money involved in the bank fraud case. The searches led to seizure of several documents, digital devices and evidences from Mr. Ravichandran, their other brother K.N. Manivannan, TVH general manager D. Ramesh, TVH director T. Selvamani and TVH former director Kavi Prasad.
However, the Madras High Court on July 7, 2025 quashed the charge sheet filed by the CBI and hence the ED’s ECIR too got closed since there was no predicate offence (a primary crime that had led to generation of illegal proceeds). The ED returned all the seized materials but retained the WhatsApp chats and photos it had downloaded from the iPhones of the five individuals and shared the information obtained from those materials with the Tamil Nadu DGP as required under Section 66(2) of PMLA.
The information was categorised under different heads and multiple dossiers were sent to the DGP. The 232-page dossier sent on October 27, 2025 had confined itself to information related to the cash-for-jobs scam. The 258-page dossier sent on December 3, 2025 had dealt exclusively with the information related to corruption in award of government tenders and contracts in the MAWS department.
Did ED share information with Union Home Ministry too?
The 258-page dossier had stated several IAS and IPS officers too were in touch with Mr. Kavi Prasad. It read: “The analysis of the phone of Kavi Prasad shows that various IAS/IPS officers were in touch with him for various purposes which violates various conduct rules and make them unbecoming of a Government servants (sic). The chat conversations and photos of the chats, names of such officers recovered by ED are not being discussed here as a separate report would be prepared on the said issue, so as to draw the attention of their cadre controlling authorities, i.e., DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training) and Home Ministry of the Government of India. This report is only on the issue of corruption in government contracts of Tamil Nadu.”
What did ED recover from mobile phones?
The ED had recovered hundreds of WhatsApp chats and photos stored in the mobile phones suspecting multiple criminal activities. While it had primarily relied upon the WhatsApp chats between Mr. Ramesh and others for arriving at a conclusion that a scam had taken place in filling up of 2,538 vacancies in the MAWS department, the WhatsApp chats between Mr. Kavi Prasad and others had been the primary focus when it came to the suspicion of manipulation of government tenders.
The ED stated the MAWS department had issued a recruitment notification on February 2, 2024 for direct recruitment to various posts such as Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers carrying a pay scale of ₹37,700 – ₹1,38,500 and Sanitary Inspectors carrying a pay scale of ₹35,400 – ₹1,30,400. The selection was to be made through written examinations followed by interviews and the responsibility of selecting the meritorious candidates was entrusted to the Anna University in Chennai. The selection process ended on February 17, 2025 and the Chief Minister handed over the appointment letters to the selected candidates on August 6, 2025.
The forensic backup of Mr. Ramesh’s iPhone 15 Pro led to discovery of the application forms, hall tickets and interview call letters of several candidates having been shared with him by different individuals. Mr. Ramesh had responded to some of those messages saying ‘done.’ In one of the chats on February 1, 2025, a person named N.K.L. Durai had shared a photo of a Microsoft Excel worksheet containing four candidates’ names stating they had been referred by Namakkal MLA P. Ramalingam of DMK. The ED also found a photo of another Microsoft Excel worksheet in the image gallery of Mr. Ramesh’s phone and it had the names of four female and three male candidates and stated they had been recommended by Ramanathapuram MLA Katharbatcha Muthuramalingam.
“The above chats show that the results of MAWS Dept jobs were being manipulated by Sh. D. Ramesh as per the wishes of the politicians in return for bribes,” the ED said and relied upon similar WhatsApp chats and photos stored in the mobile phones of the four others too. Though a majority of the candidates mentioned in those chats had got appointed, some of them had not been selected and the ED stated the latter might not have paid the bribe amount ranging from ₹25 lakh to ₹35 lakh.
‘Modus operandi to turn black money into white’
Relying upon the photos of ₹10 currency notes and their serial numbers that have been shared too, the ED concluded the bribe amounts had been collected through Hawala transactions. It said, an individual whose phone number had been saved as Veeramani had sent a photo to Mr. Ramesh of a bag full of currency notes worth about ₹1 crore and it matched with the amount collected for selecting three candidates at the rate of ₹35 lakh each.
The ED also stated certain chats related to RTGS transfers made to Shree Basaveshwara Sugars Limited proved that the Hawala money was brought back into the banking system. “The RTGS are made to sugar company named Shree Basaveshwara Sugars Ltd as it is an entity which deals in cash transactions of relating to agriculture and farmers. The laundering is much easier in the said sector,” the ED claimed.
The 232-page dossier sent to the DGP by ED Additional Director Abhyuday A. Anand also read: “The relatives and close associates of Sh. K.N. Nehru were involved in manipulation of MAWS exam process. The said persons had access to confidential examination information. The said persons collected bribes for getting candidates selected for jobs in MAWS department… All the above activities were with the active knowledge of Sh. K.N. Nehru, Minister for MAWS department.”
Was there any evidence to link the Chief Minister?
The ED had primarily relied upon the WhatsApp chats and photos from Mr. Kavi Prasad’s phone to suspect that he had been manipulating government tenders and collecting 7.5% to 10% of the contract amount from the successful tenderers towards ‘party fund.’ Referring to a photo of a calculation sheet sent to him by a person whose name had been saved as MLA Nandakumar, in the phone, the ED said: “This chat shows that even MLAs have to pay Party Fund in the form of bribes. If they don’t pay bribes (Party Fund), they cannot get any government contracts.”
Further, referring to similar WhatsApp chats, the ED makes a sweeping statement that “the bribes in the form of Party Fund is collected for the benefit of the party in power and which is running the Tamil Nadu Government. The party in power and which is running the Government in Tamil Nadu is DMK. The DMK political party is headed by Sh. M.K. Stalin, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Since the DMK Party is headed by the Sh. M.K Stalin, he is the current Chief Minister and his son is the current Deputy Chief Minister. The direct beneficiary of the Party Fund (which is at 7.5% to 10% of the contract value of Government contracts) is Sh. M.K. Stalin, Chief Minister, Government of Tamil Nadu and his son Sh. Udhayanidhi, Deputy Chief Minister.”
In the same dossier, the ED had also said: “Kavi Prasad is technically smart person and he does not share much details in chats. He believes in meeting people personally and discussing directly so as to ensure that evidence of bribes are kept secret. He usually keeps his phone clean of evidences relating to bribes. However, still some evidences of tender manipulation, bribe collections could be found.”
Published – February 23, 2026 06:16 pm IST
