DMK cries foul after I-T sleuths raid premises of party candidate EV Velu in Tiruvannamalai

TIRUVANNAMALAI: Even as he was participating at an election campaign meeting addressed by party chief MK Stalin, the premises of DMK Tiruvannamalai (south) district secretary and candidate for the Tiruvannamalai Assembly seat EV Velu were raided by Income Tax (I-T) sleuths on Thursday, sources said.

A team of I-T men entered the premises of Arunai Engineering College owned by Velu at about 11 am and began searching the offices of the engineering, medical, arts and science and polytechnic colleges and his residence located on the same premises. The office of a trust managed by him was also searched.

The sources said the guest house where Stalin has been staying was scanned by the I-T team. Stalin checked in at the guest house on Wednesday night and left on Thursday morning to address the poll meeting in Tiruvannamalai town.

When the I-T men were searching the premises, Velu, along with other seven candidates of his party, was attending the poll campaign meeting, which Stalin was addressing.

The sources stated that Velu’s residence located in Chennai is also being raided by the I-T men.

Velu is one of the key persons in the DMK in charge of the party's poll expenditures. Moreover, he is also spending for the electioneering of his party candidates in Assembly segments in Tiruvannamalai. The party has fielded candidates in all the eight constituencies in the district.

Meanwhile, DMK general secretary Durai Murugan has condemned the raids saying they are being carried out with a political motive. He also questioned the rationale behind searching the guest house where the Leader of Opposition and DMK president Stalin was staying.

It may be noted that I-T men raided the premises of DMK general secretary Durai Murugan and his son and candidate DM Kathir Anand during the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Cash bundles worth Rs 11 crore allegedly meant for distribution to voters were seized from the premises of a local DMK functionary’s relative in Katpadi. The incident raised a lot of dust leading to the Election Commission of India (ECI) deferring the polls which were later held in August.

Kathir Anand won the elections by a narrow margin.