Taxmen raid late TN CM J Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden house, secretary room searched

It may be recalled that Poongundran was grilled by the I-T officials on Monday for more than 10 hours after the department completed a five-day long search operation at the premises belonging to V K Sasikala, jailed aide of Jayalalithaa, and her kin. He was questioned again by the I-T officials on Friday. Officials had been questioning all the important members of the Mannargudi family of Sasikala including Jaya TV managing director Vivek Jayaraman, nephew of Sasikala, his sisters, TTV Dinakaran’s brother in-law Dr Venkatesh, senior executives of Jaya TV and Jazz Cinemas fromMonday onwards.   “Two or three premises are yet to be covered. It may happen on Saturday,” an Income-Tax source disclosed, adding that the Department had obtained special permission from the court to conduct the raid at Veda Nilayam, which was left untouched by the central agency so far. 

A laptop and storage devices have been seized. Last week the I-T investigators had conducted a search at the old office of Jaya TV, located near Veda Nilayam. Sources said Poongundran had disclosed certain details to the I-T officials after which the department decided to conduct searches at Jayalalithaa’s residence, which the state government had decided to convert it into a memorial amid protest from Jayalalithaa’s kin. Vivek reached Veda Nilayam in the night after coming to know about the searches going on there. Police security was beefed up at Veda Nilayam following the raids.