Dinakaran calls I-T raids on Jaya TV 'political vendetta'
Chennai, Nov 9 (IBNS): AIADMK's sidelined leader TTV Dinakaran has termed the Income Tax raids which were carried out on Jaya TV on Thursday, a "political vendetta", media reports said.
Dinakaran told reporters: "The Centre is targeting Sasikala and my family. I am not scared of Income Tax raids."
The Income Tax officials conducted raids at the office of Jaya TV, which was started by former Tamil Nadu chief minister late J Jayalalitha.
Apart from the Jaya TV office, the raids have been conducted in late Jayalalitha'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's, at Sundara Kottai were also among the searched locations.
Dinakaran even accused the central government and the Tamil Nadu government of acting against Sasikala wrongly.
"They want to ensure through the raids that Sasikala and I quit politics. They can raid whoever they want," he added.
He even said that Jaya TV will come out clean.
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 Jayalalitha, it was under the control of 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 Jayalalitha's death, expressed her ambition to become the CM of the state.
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