Income Tax sleuths may question Sasikala in Bengaluru jail

“We have plans to question her as a majority of the firms, which were raided, are linked to her. We need to get permission from court and go to Bengaluru jail and conduct an enquiry there. It may happen in two or three weeks’ time,” an Income-Tax official said on Wednesday. Vivek’s sisters Krishnapriya and Shakila besides AIADMK Amma faction Karnataka unit secretary Pugalendhi had appeared before the I-T investigators on Wednesday.

Sources said that when Sasikala came on parole last month to see her ailing husband in hospital, at least 622 properties or firms – linked to her - were reportedly re-registered. During the five-day raids at over 190 places by 1,800 officers, I-T investigators had recovered documents showing transaction of nearly Rs 1,500 crore as undisclosed income by the firms linked to Sasikala. 

A top tax official in Chennai said that over Rs 7 crore in cash and jewellery worth over Rs 5 crore were also seized. It may be recalled that on Monday, after completing ‘Operation Clean Money’, the I-T men had grilled Jaya TV managing director, Vivek Jayaraman, son of Sasikala’s late brother and S Poongundran, personal assistant of the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa along with her physician Dr K S Shivakumar at the department’s Nungambakkam office.