Dindigul: Two days after his arrest by the CBI, Income Tax (I-T) sleuths raided the house of ‘Surveyor’ Rathinam, a business partner of sand mining baron Shekar Reddy for nearly 10 years, here on Saturday.
A four-member team from the I-T department, Tiruchy, who visited his house at GTN road around 7 am, conducted inquiries with his wife Selvi and family members.
As Rathinam had started companies such as, ‘Shri Selvi chambers, Shri Selvi Transport, Selvi & Co, and Selvi Miners’ in his wife’s name, the team members raided those offices located adjacent to his house.
The officials reportedly seized incriminating documents both from his home and offices, said the police source. The team also took note of ten high-end cars including Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, BMW parked at his residence.
Rathinam and his family members have done various businesses under the banner ‘Veda Green Power Private Ltd’ also called as ‘Tharani groups of companies’, said the police source. He also owns a hotel called Rathiavilas in the town.
Rathinam’s success is a real rags-to-riches story. A native of from Muthupattinam village in Pudukkottai district, he started his career as an assistant surveyor in the Revenue department in 1980’s.
After he was transferred to Dindigul district, Rathinam used the opportunity of real estate boom during 1990’s to develop close contact with real estate developers who depended on his services to fix deals with land owners, said the source adding, he had complete knowledge of the areas.
“Soon he was referred as ‘Surveyor’ among the business community which also become his first name,” said the source. Rathinam, who served in the department for nearly 20 years, took voluntary retirement in 2005 and started ‘Tharani constructions’ in his wife’s name. His close relative Ramachandran introduced him to sand barons.
The duo jointly did sand mining business in southern Tamil Nadu during the previous DMK regime. They have extended their contacts in bureaucracy after they came in contact with Reddy during the AIADMK rule. Both were the business partners with Reddy in SRS Mining, sources added.
I-T team raids associate’S quarry site, office, home
Sleuths of the Income Tax (I-T) department on Saturday conducted raids at the quarry site, residence and other business concerns of local industrialist Ramachandran, a close associate of the controversial PWD contractor Shekar Reddy, here on Saturday.
Official sources said that the raid was a follow-up action of the I-T raids at the premises of Shekar Reddy, his relatives Srinivasa Reddy, close associate Prem and seized huge amount of black money and gold deposits from them. They have been arrested and remanded to judicial custody.
Based on their information, the I-T authorities also arrested their business associates, Ramachandran of Pudukkottai (Muthupattinam) and Ratnam of Dindigul, sources said.
Meanwhile, a 25-member officials team of the I-T department from Chennai and Tiruchy conducted raids at the sand quarry office of Ramachandran at Nizam Colony at Pudukkottai, and his residence at Muthupattinam, Iluppur, and a few other places simultaneously this afternoon, sources added.
During the raids, several documents have been seized. The I-T department’s action has also brought under surveillance another ruling AIADMK functionary residing in a coastal area of Pudukkottai district and similar raid was also going on there, sources added.
