Chennai: Income tax investigators on Friday wrapped up the three-day long raids and searches on the premises of former union minister S. Jagathrakshakan. Sources revealed that the estimated undisclosed income of the DMK heavyweight and liquor baron to be around Rs 500 to Rs 600 crore.
While sleuths seized Rs 22 crore in cash, the estimate is based on the value of movable and immovable properties belonging to him, his family members and benamis.
After having raided 40 properties, including residences and offices owned and managed by the former MP and his family, the I-T sleuths are also understood to have sought several clarifications from him on the money seized and the undisclosed income. This was one of the biggest IT raids on a former Union minister in recent memory with the I-T department deploying more than 380 taxmen in the raids over the past three days.
Properties belonging to Jagathrakshakan and his family in neighbouring Puducherry also came under the I-T net as the former minister of state for Information and Broadcasting was barred from using his mobile phones since the raids began on Wednesday.
“Apart from seizure of cash, the investigators seized gold and had also dug out documents of deposits, houses and properties worth over Rs.550 crore. The politician and his finance mangers are negotiating with the income tax officials to reach an agreeable disclosure amount, which is pegged at Rs.500 crore by the taxmen,” sources said.
The income tax officials had conducted simultaneous raids on Jagathrakshakan’s various residences, offices, colleges, the Bharath University, Balaji dental and medical colleges and a distillery in Villupuram. The DMK leader and his family own at least a dozen colleges in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. He also owns a star hotel in T Nagar in the heart of Chennai.
