The AIADMK has set up a panel of senior leaders to steer legal response to what it believes is ‘a slew of foisted cases’ from the DMK government in the wake of an anti-corruption raid at the premises of Coimbatore leader SP Velumani.

“This panel is to legally face the web of politically motivated cases prepared by the DMK Government,” the party said in a release.

The six-member panel is led by the former fisheries minister and spokesperson, D Jayakumar. The panel contains leaders Thalavai Sundaram, C Ve Shanmugam (former law minister), Babu Murugavel, IS Inbadurai, and PH Manoj Pandian, who had been previously involved in consultations over legal cases that the party had faced in the past.

The AIADMK’s move to set up the panel follows the action against Velumani, who had been at the receiving end of activist-led exposes in the previous term of government. The Arappor Iyakkam, among others, had periodically revealed tender rule violations in the award of contracts in the regions Velumani, and his family, had wielded clout.