I-T raids at home of former IG’s son after large-scale tax evasion in property deal

The I-T sleuths conducted raids at his residence at Boat Club from early morning hours on Friday and have reportedly seized several incriminating documents that showed largescale tax evasion. I-T department sources said Arul had sold a property through gross undervaluation in order to evade tax and the property was purchased by Thyagarajan, who is a Highways contractor and son of former Highways executive engineer Gurumurthy.

I-T sources said the sale was carried out showing just Rs 10 crore, whereas the original sale was executed for an alleged sum of Rs 60 crore. The guideline value of the property is around Rs 23 crore, sources added. I-T officials have found documentary proof for the wilful default. Sources said I-T officials have seized several documents that showed investments made by Arul using unaccounted money.

On Thursday, I-T officials searched the offices of Gurumurthy Engineering Enterprises, GG Infrastructures and Thiyagarajan Enterprises and seized Rs 43 lakh in cash, 20 kg of silver and 23 kg of gold from the house of Thyagarajan at Ashok Nagar. The three companies take up highway contracts including laying of roads and culverts. Officials said Thyagarajan had paid more than Rs 50 crore as cash to Michel Arul during the sales of the property.

Thyagarajan is said to have close connections with several political leaders in Tamil Nadu and had managed to use his influence to bag highway contracts for the last 20 years, IT sources added. More raids are likely on people connected to Thyagarajan and Arul, sources added.