Chennai: In yet another embarrassment to the ruling AIADMK, the health minister C. Vijayabaskar was on Sunday summoned by the Income-Tax department to appear before its investigators on Monday to record his statement on the recovery made in premises owned by him and his relatives during the search.
The I-T department also issued notices to Dr MGR Medical University Vice Chancellor Dr S. Geethalakshmi and actor turned politician Sarah Kumar, whose premises were also raided on Friday.
"It is a normal practice for income tax investigators to summon people for recording their detailed statement after the raids," a senior I-T official said. The raids on Friday had stirred a hornet's nest after officials recovered documents indicating that over '89 crore was distributed to voters by the Sasikala camp of AIADMK to garner votes in favour of TTV Dhinakaran in the RK Nagar poll, scheduled for April 12.
Reacting to issuance of notice, Mr Vijayabaskar said he would appear before the I-T department on Monday and promised full cooperation to the probe. The raids came as a major embarrassment to the ruling AIADMK since a minister's premises were raided.
The party has been under attack from Opposition for allegedly distributing cash for votes among the electorate of RK Nagar constituency. The documents recovered from the minister's residence suggest the plan was to give '4,000 for every vote in the constituency.
Nearly 150 sleuths of the I-T department along with security personnel had conducted searches at over 30 locations across the state belonging to the official residence and properties owned by Vijayabaskar and also at the homes of Sarath Kumar and Geethalakshmi in Chennai
On Saturday, Vijayabaskar's father Chinnathambi and a relative had appeared before I-T officials in Tiruchy after Friday's raids. Vijayabaskar is prominent among the loyalists of AIADMK (Amma) faction's candidate Dinakaran for the RK Nagar bypoll and the first state minister to come under the scanner of I-T investigators.
In Friday, Vijayabaskar had slammed the raids by I-T men. "They have not seized any unaccounted money or documents. Their intentions are not fulfilled by the raids," he had said. He is singing a different tune after a list noting money to be distributed was recovered from three different places in the raids.
