CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu government officials along with Income-Tax officers on Saturday inspected the Veda Nilayam residence of late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in the posh Poes Garden locality ahead of action to convert it into a memorial.

The presence of Income-Tax officers in the team raised speculation of another raid on the property, but state government officials clarified that the tax were invited as they had searched a few rooms in the palatial bungalow earlier. An Income-Tax officer said it is not a tax raid but just a joint inspection prior to converting the residence into a memorial for Jayalalithaa who had been chief minister six times.

The swift move is also seen as a preventive measure as ruling Anna DMK’s rebel leader TTV Dinakaran is feared to block any bid to convert it into a memorial. His aunt and Jayalalithaa’s ex-confidant Sasikala is seen as having had a control over the property and officials see the possibility of her having hidden some secrets there.

The state government had announced in August the conversion of the premises as a memorial as Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami gave into pressures for it from his deputy O. Pannerselvam ahead of a merger of the two main factions of ADMK. Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa then filed a petition against the government order claiming that she and her brother were successors to her estate.

Deepa had filed a petition stated that her paternal grandmother Vedavalli alias Sandhya had purchased several properties in and around Chennai and died in 1971 leaving behind her son Jayakumar and daughter Jayalalithaa as successors to her estate.

Deepa claimed that her father got married after her grandmother’s death and lived in a joint family with his wife, children as well as his sister (Jayalalithaa) in the same house for a long time.

She had said that it was only for the sake of convenience that the family had to move to the present residence at T Nagar. She had submitted that Jayalalithaa died last year leaving behind her and her brother as second-class legal heirs to succeed to her entire estate which also includes the Poes Garden residence.

In August, state security forces took control of the Poes Garden, hours after chief minister Palanisamy announced that the bungalow will be converted into a public memorial in honour of Jayalalithaa.