Just before polls, I-T & EC search Kanimozhi house

CHENNAI: Income tax and Election Commission officials began searches at the Tuticorin residence of DMK leader Kanimozhi on Tuesday based on information from the district collector. However, there was no information from either EC or I-T officials about any cash or documents being seized in the searches.

Kanimozhi, the DMK candidate for the Tuticorin Lok Sabha constituency, was at home when a team of 10 officials arrived at the Kuringi Nagar residence, a few hours after electioneering came to an end in Tamil Nadu which votes on Thursday. She had rented the house after the party announced her candidature.

Kanimozhi said the officials left after they found nothing at her home and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of trying to threaten opponents into submission. She said such tactics would not work and added that DMK was not a party that can be cowed down.

DMK president M K Stalin accused EC of targeting his party. “I accuse Tuticorin BJP candidate Tamilisai Soundararajan of storing crores of rupees at her residence. Is the Income Tax department ready to search her residence?” asked Stalin.

“We received information from Tuticorin collector that there is a suspicion of the upper portion of the residence being used wrongly. Based on the information from the collector, we entered the residence along with two squads. We were only checking whether anything was being stored there,” said an I-T official.