After raids, Income tax department questions Jaya TV MD Vivek Jayaraman
Chennai: Vivek Jayaraman, managing director of Jaya TV run by the Mannargudi family, Dr K. S. Shivakumar and Poonkundran – personal physician and personal assistant of late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa — were subjected to intense questioning by the income tax investigators on Monday regarding their property and unaccounted money seized during raids.
Income tax officials said prima facie they have detected undisclosed income of Rs 1,430 crore during the raids that have been going on for the last five days.
They also said Rs 7 crore and jewellery worth over Rs 5 crore were seized during the searches and that 15 bank lockers and diamond jewellery were kept under “prohibitory orders”. Sources in the I-T department said a total of 215 property are under the scanner and more than 300 people are likely to be issued summons to appear before the authorities in the coming days.
Questioning of the trio came even as the I-T sleuths continued to search the residence of Vivek’s sister Krishna Priya, whose residence V. K. Sasikala chose to stay during her five-day parole last month to meet her ailing husband M. Natarajan, for the fifth straight day.
Krishna Priya and Vivek seem to be the focal point of the statewide raids that began on Thursday last with over 1,800 sleuths from the income tax department drawn across the country swooped on over 180 premises owned by the family of Sasikala and her relatives.
Sasikala's brother Dhivakaran, searches at whose premises ended on Sunday, has been asked to appear before I-T investigators on Wednesday.
After concluding searches at the palatial bungalow of Vivek in upscale Mahalingapuram in the heart of Chennai on the fifth day, I-T investigators took the young businessman, son of Sasikala's brother Jayaraman who died of electrocution at Jayalalithaa's grape garden in Hyderabad in 1991, along with them for questioning at the I-T department's investigation wing office in Nungambakkam.
Besides Shivakumar and Poonkundran, rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran's close political aide Pugazhendi was also questioned for a couple of hours and was asked to appear before I-T investigators on Wednesday.
“I was questioned by the officers though nothing was recovered from my residence. I cooperated with the I-T officers and have been asked to appear on Wednesday which I will do,” Pugazhendi told reporters at the I-T headquarters here. Vivek, who is linked with several shell companies allegedly run by the Mannargudi Family, was confronted with documents concerning several firms before Shivakumar and Poonkundran late on Monday evening. Television visuals showed Vivek being escorted by I-T officials out of his residence and led into an SUV and later coming out of the car at the investigation wing office of the department in Nungambakkam.
Sources said Vivek was subjected to intense questioning on the source of his income and how he managed to own several companies within a short span of time. Poonkundran, the man who managed Jayalalithaa's office at the Poes Garden residence, and Shivakumar, who treated the late chief minister before she was admitted to Apollo Hospitals, were also questioned since Monday morning.
