It's politically motivated

Following the Income Tax raids on Friday morning, the AIADMK (Amma) faction has alleged that the operation was politically motivated, coming just days ahead of the RK Nagar by-election. It is reliably learnt that the I-T department had collected authentic information regarding cash hoarding by Vijaya Baskar and other senior ministers of the erstwhile Jayalalithaa regime during the raids at the premises of sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy and former Chief Secretary Rama Mohana Rao. The allegations of the ruling party in the state gains traction over the question as to why the department waited so long to carry out the raids, when they had the information on their hands for more than three months. 

The ruling party has accused the BJP for making the I-T department a political tool to crush the winning prospects of the party in RK Nagar. When contacted, a senior I-T official said that they waited for the party to mobilise the money at one area for distribution to voters. “We waited as we know that they were planning to take out the money for distribution at RK Nagar. Though we had information about the cash hoarding, we had to finalise logistics issues to carry out the raids in many places as the money was parked in smaller quantities at scattered locations. Once they brought in the money to Chennai for distribution, it gave us the opportunity to raid them at one go,” the official added. 

Meanwhile, Vijaya Baskar told the media that he extended full cooperation to the I-T sleuths,   even offering to break open a locked draw in his house as his assistant had taken away the key. “They were unable to get even Rs.10,000 from my house” he claimed. “The I-T officials also wanted to know how much I gave Sarath Kumar,” he added. 

While the media was stopped by the locked gates of his house, a CISF cop tried to prevent Vijaya Baskar from approaching the media. A local cop spoke to the CISF  personnel and allowed Vijaya Baskar to address the media. 

Meanwhile, TN special representative Dalavai Sundaram fired a salvo at the central government, albeit indirectly. “They are targetting Vijaya Baskar as he is an active young man who had arranged campaign meetings with Muslims in RK Nagar for Friday evening” he added. 

When the media asked whether he suspected the central government to be behind this move, Sundaram said, “You have given the answer through your question.” All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi leader Sarath Kumar’s house was also raided. He had expressed support to the AIADMK(A) faction only a day earlier. 

Actor and founder of All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi, R Sarath Kumar, whose home was raided by Income Tax department, said he was  unaware of the reasons for the raid. “This is an attempt to prevent me from making it to the election campaign in support of TTV Dinakaran, AIADMK (A) candidate. However, I fully cooperated with the officials,” he said. To a question, he said the officials told him that he had a large amount of cash. “The officials have neither seized any documents nor money. Some officials were tough and did not listen to my requests. When they examined each room, I told them to stop the raid for a while, as my wife was taking a bath. Yet, they continued,” the actor-politician said.