Chennai: In major raids ahead of the byelection slated for April 12, I-T sleuths swooped Friday morning on the residences and premises in 35 locations across Tamil Nadu belonging to health minister Dr C. Vijayabaskar, actor-turned-politician Sarath Kumar and Dr MGR Medical University Vice Chancellor, Dr. S. Geethalakshmi
Income tax sources said more than Rs 4.5 crore unaccounted cash was seized during the raids, besides property documents and jewellery worth over Rs 89 crore. The seized documents also included expense details of the RK Nagar by poll, which ran into many crores of rupees, besides gift tokens.
The raids are seen as a belated attempt by the income-tax department to cut the cash being distributed freely among voters in Dr RK Nagar constituency.
Minister Vijayabaskar is believed to be a strong supporter of RK Nagar candidate TTV Dhinakaran of the Sasikala camp. He was also close to sand baron Sekhar Reddy, who was raided by I-T in December and later arrested by the CBI.
Of Rs 4.5 crore seized, Rs 2.2 crore was seized from one Nainar Mohamed, a close confidant of the minister and '1crore was seized from another person close to the minister, sources added. The rest came from seizure in lakhs of rupees at various places.
As many 21 places in Chennai, 11 locations in Pudukottai, 2 in Tiruchy and premises in Namakkal were subject to I-T tax searches on Friday. A raid was also carried out in premises belonging to former AIADMK MP Chitalapakkam Rajendran.
Sources admitted that there was no major cash seizure from the houses of minister Vijayabaskar, Geethalakshmi and Sarath Kumar, chief of All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi, who declared his support to Dhinakaran on Thursday. Geethalakshmi is believed to be a close confidante of minister Vijayabaskar.
Apart from Chennai, the searches are being conducted in stone quarries, at colleges and in residential premises of the minister and his family members.
Vijayabaskar hit the headlines when the AIADMK split into two factions after the demise of former CM Jayalalithaa with former chief minister O.Panneerselvam accusing him of siding with VK Sasikala and her family members and pressurising him to quit.
