“Using the Income Tax department, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley are trying to destroy our family,” said T.T.V. Dhinakaran, sidelined AIADMK leader here.
“It [the I-T raids] is purely political vendetta… But we’ll not get scared and will not run away,” Mr. Dhinakaran said here on Saturday following searches by the I-T officials in former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence ‘Veda Nilayam’ on Friday night close on the heels of the I-T raids conducted at 187 places belonging to V.K. Sasikala, the jailed confidante of Jayalalithaa, her relatives and friends.
He said Mr. Modi, who used to project himself as the friend of Jayalalithaa, did not visit her even as she was undergoing treatment in the hospital. However, he, deviating from his itinerary, visited DMK’s ailing chief M. Karunanidhi at his residence. “Though we never made it an issue, we’ve to speak about this when Amma’s residence is raided,” he said.
Training the guns on Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his deputy O. Panneerselvam for not condemning the raids, Mr. Dhinakaran said both EPS and OPS would go to any extent to safeguard their positions.
“The I-T personnel have taken with them only a few computers, pendrives and a few letters from Amma’s residence, which is a temple for us,” Mr. Dhinakaran said.
Minister denies charge
Union Minister of State for Shipping, Highways and Finance Pon. Radhakrishnan has stoutly refuted Mr. Dhinakaran’s allegation.
“The raids are being conducted based on the information and the evidence the I-T officials had gathered over a period. There is no political vendetta,” Mr. Radhakrishnan said after garlanding the statue of V.O. Chidambaram Pillai at his memorial in Ottapidaaram near here on his 81st death anniversary.