Officials from the Income Tax department on Friday carried out searches at multiple locations in Tamil Nadu linked to minister of public works department EV Velu, the third cabinet member in the DMK government and fourth party leader to come under the scanner.

Raids were carried out in more than 40 locations, including at his hometown in Tiruvannamalai, and residences, offices and educational institutions owned by him across the state in Chennai, Coimbatore and Karur, a police officer said.

Velu is considered close to chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin and was food minister in the previous DMK cabinet from 2006-2011.

DMK leader and Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin alleged that agencies like the I-T and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have become the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “political wings”.

Velu is the fourth senior DMK leader to be raided by federal agencies in the past few months. His cabinet colleague V Senthil Balaji is currently lodged in the Puzhal Central Jail in a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act filed by the ED, which also raided and questioned higher education minister K Ponmudy.

The I-T department last month carried out raids against Arakkonam MP S Jagathrakshagan.