Chennai: The Chennai Police on Friday registered a FIR against three Tamil Nadu ministers — R.Kamaraj, Udumalai K Radhakrishnan and Kadambur Raju — along with senior AIADMK leader Thalavai Sundaram in connection with the a complaint lodged by the income-tax department. Kamaraj and Radhakrishnan, along with the Thalavai Sundaram, had barged into the house of TN health minister Dr C. Vijayabaskar last Friday, when an I-T raid was going on. Kadambur Raju had stormed into the house of actor turned politician Sarath Kumar in Kottivakkam when an I-T raid was on the same day.
The AIADMK seniors and ministers had allegedly threatened and abused income-tax officials, including a woman official in the process and hampered the raids and searches on that day. The Abhiramapuram police station had registered FIR under IPC sections 183 (resistance to the taking of property by the lawful authority of a public servant) 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) 189 (threat of injury to public servant) and 448 (trespassing) against the accused.
Kamaraj handles food ministry, while K.Radhakrishnan and C.Kadambur Raju take care of housing, urban development and information & publicity ministries Tamil Nadu respectively. Perhaps this is the first time in recent history the police are registering an FIRR against ministers based on a complaint from the I-T department. The city police had been hesitating to register the case for the last couple of days as the complaint from the income-tax department was against State ministers. A high-level meeting was held at the Secretariat to discuss how to handle the complaint against the AIADMK ministers from the I-T officials.
Meanwhile, the city police maintained that they were collecting evidence and documents, despite the fact that all the misadventures by the ministers were captured by TV cameras on that day. The I-T sleuths went to the house of health minister C.Vijayabaskar on Greenways road last Friday as it was believed that he was handling the illegal cash distribution network for the cash-for-votes in the RK Nagar constituency where a byelection was due on April 12, on behalf of TTV Dhinakaran.
Health minister, sarath, VC summoned again:
The income-tax department has summoned TN health minister Dr C. Vijayabaskar, actor-politician Sarath Kumar and Dr MGR university VC, Dr S. Geethalakshmi to appear again before the income-tax officials on Monday in connection with last week's raid and seizures. The income-tax officials had conducted searches at 35 premises belonging to Vijayabaskar, Sarath Kumar and Geethalakshmi and their associates. All three are being separately questioned by I-T sleuths since Monday. The searches on the premises of an associate of the minister last week allegedly revealed routing of Rs 89 crore in cash-for-votes by the Sasikala camp of AIADMK in the RK Nagar Assembly constituency where a by-election was due on April 12, for influencing voters in favour of TTV Dhinakaran. The Election Commission had cancelled the by- poll over allegations of use of money on the night of April 9.
