IT officials conduct raids in Jayalalithaa's house in Chennai
Chennai, Nov 18 (IBNS): The Income Tax (IT) officials conducted raids in former Tamil Nadu chief minister late J Jayalalithaa's Poes Gardens residence on Friday evening, media reports said.
The officials even searched the rooms which were used by Jayalalithaa's aid Sasikala.
Sasikala, who is presently serving a jail term in a disproportionate assets case, lived in the Poes Garden home after Jayalalithaa's death till the time she was imprisoned.
A laptop, a desktop and few pen drives have been seized by the officials, report said.
A senior official told NDTV: "It was a limited exercise... We searched only the office of S Poongundran and two rooms of Sasikala. The search has concluded."
On Nov. 9, the Income Tax officials conducted raids at the office of Jaya TV, which was started by the late chief minister.
Apart from the Jaya TV office, the raids have been conducted in late Jayalalithaa's Kodanad estate and several properties of imprisoned AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala.
The raids were carried out by ten officials at around 6 a.m..
The officials even searched Sasikala's husband M Natarajan's house in Thanjavur.
The residences of Sasikala's nephew and sidelined AIADMK leader, TTV Dinakaran in Mannargudi and Sasikala's brother Divakaran at Sundara Kottai were also among the search locations.
The I-T officials told The Times of India around 80 places were searched by them on Thursday morning.
The officials even searched the residence of Sasikala's nephew Vivek Jayaraman, who controls Jaya TV and Jazz cinemas.
The income tax officials said they began the raids after they had received an information about tax evasion and concealment.
"We have confirmed information about concealment of income and tax evasion. We have been monitoring the activities of the TV channel as well as its senior officials and others" an I-T official told The Times Of India.
Though Jaya TV was started by late Jayalalithaa, it was under the control by Sasikala and her family members.
The channel has been critical of the ruling AIADMK in the state after the EPS-OPS factions merged.
Sasikala has been imprisoned for four years in the disproportionate assets case.
The power tussle in the AIADMK began when VK Sasikala, who became the interim AIADMK general secretary after Jayalalithaa's death, expressed her ambition to become the CM of the state.
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