I-T raids Jaya TV Chennai office, Dinakaran says not intimidated by scare tactics

Income Tax officials raided the Chennai office of Jaya TV on Thursday morning. (Representational)

Income Tax department raided the Chennai office of Jaya TV and 186 other locations early on Thursday morning over allegations of tax evasion. Jaya TV is controlled by jailed AIADMK leader V K Sasikala’s family and is considered to be politically disposed in favour of deposed leaders Sasikala and T T V Dinakaran.

“It’s not about TV alone, but shell companies,” an I-T official said. The raid began at 6.30 am and is ongoing. The raids — which are a part of ‘Operation Clean Money’ searches — also cover the premises of Midas Distilleries and Jazz Cinemas which are perceived to be associated with some of those linked to Jaya TV, PTI reported.

Apart from Jaya TV, the residence and office of Sasikala’s nephew Vivek Jayaraman, his sister’s house in Thyagaraya Nagar and another house in Bengaluru are among the other places being raided by I-T. The raids are being conducted for alleged money laundering through newly floated shell companies.

Dinakaran, the sidelined AIADMK leader, blamed the Centre for the raids. “I did say that demonetisation is a failure. That is the truth. I supported it at first but now everyone knows it was a failure. If you raid me for saying that, I will repeat that. Don’t try to scare me,” he said.

“Centre is trying to finish us from politics. It is clear that Centre is behind this raid. But let them tell us about Anbunathan diary, what happened to Sekhar Reddy diary? What about EPS relatives named in that? Don’t even think that you benefit in Tamil Nadu by destroying us,” he said.

The ongoing I-T raids have targeted 10 groups running shell firms. Of these, three belong to the Sasikala family. Surana, Sunil, Puducherry Sree Lakshmi, Wind Subramanian are among the other groups being raided for shell firms and suspicious fund deposit. Ten groups of I-T officials were involved in “the search exercise taking place across Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and other places” an I-T official told news agency IANS preferring anonymity.

(With inputs from ENS and agencies)