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Income Tax department tracks Sasi’s family deals, seeks Jazz Cinemas papers
After the I-T sleuths spent days questioning key members of the Mannargudi clan during one of the longest Income Tax raids recorded in recent times, the focus is now firmly on the family’s business deals, as officials have sought papers pertaining to the purchase of Luxe screens at Phoenix Mall in Velachery by Jazz Cinemas from Sathyam.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
According to well-placed sources in the I-T department, officials have asked the management of Sathyam Cinemas to submit all available documents related to the purchase of Luxe, the high-end, 11-screen multiplex located in Phoenix Mall, which was owned by the group.
When contacted, the management of Sathyam Cinemas admitted that they were contacted by the Income-Tax department, but did not give any further details regarding the papers.
“If the I-T department asks for some documents, no company can say no to them,” they said. However, a department source confirmed that the Sathyam management has handed over all the documents sought by the department.
Luxe changed hands at an extra-ordinary general meeting of Jazz Cinemas on July 17, 2014, in the presence of V K Sasikala and her sister-in-law J Ilavarasi, after it was acquired for an undisclosed amount. At the time of sale, the directors were named as Sivakumaar Koothaippar Sathiamoorthy and Karthikeyan Kaliyaperumal, relatives of Ilavarasi, who were also directors of Midas Golden Distilleries.
The deal was made public around October 2015, at which time it was widely rumoured to be a forced acquisition, with both DMK and PMK raising questions over the purchase.
It may be recalled that in 2013, the Chennai police booked a land grab case against a senior executive of Sathyam cinemas.
Vivek Jayaraman, Managing Director of Jazz Cinemas, went on record on Tuesday to say that Sathyam Cinemas willingly sold the multiplex to them, and there was no coercion or illegal tactics involved.
This probe by the I-T department follows the dramatic raid on former chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence, where a laptop and storage devices were seized in a bid to get details of business deals, allegedly on information divulged by Jaya’s personal secretary S Poongundran.
DICEY DEAL
- Luxe changed hands at an extra-ordinary general meeting of Jazz Cinemas on July 17, 2014, in the presence of V K Sasikala and her sister-in-law J Ilavarasi.
- The deal was made public around October 2015, at which time it was widely rumoured to be a forced acquisition, with both DMK and PMK raising questions over the purchase.
- In 2013, the Chennai police booked a land grab case against a senior executive of Sathyam cinemas.
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