Chennai: Meticulous planning had begun some six months ago involving multiple Central agencies that sought and obtained ‘liberal’ help from ‘trusted’ sources in the TN police, before the Thursdaylaunch of the massive statewide operation against the Sasikala family, informed sources said.
They disclosed that dozens of people and establishments associated with the S-family are now under “close scrutiny even if they have not come under immediate action”. The identity of some of those raided on Thursday stunned political and official circles here as they have been either low-key operators or faceless entities — some of them in remote rural areas — and hence would be most unlikely suspects on any I-T radar, unless specific intelligence on their links to the heavyweights was made available to the taxmen over a period of preparation time.
“This only shows the extensive groundwork that had gone in before the launch of these raids. It appears that some select personnel from the state police helped the Central agencies to gather vital information that led to identifying the targets. There is still a lot of work to be done to find some light at the end of this newly opened tunnel”, said an official requesting anonymity. What he did not mention was that again, there would be multiple Central and State agencies involved in doing that “lot of work” ahead. To ensure utmost secrecy, the IT department did not even use its official vehicles for the ‘operation’ and hired more than 300 cars from a private taxi operator to facilitate movement of their staff.
