Tamil Nadu: 2 computers, 6 pen drives recovered from Veda Nilayam

Chennai: Income tax sleuths recovered two computers, a tablet and six pen drives from two rooms at the Poes Garden residence of late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa during the Friday night raids. I-T officials said the raids were planned after they received specific information that there were plans to "clandestinely remove" these electronic gadgets from Veda Nilayam.

 A senior official of the income tax department told DC that V. K. Sasikala and P.S. Poonkundran were using the two rooms that came under the siege of the sleuths on Friday night. A lot of documents relating to shell companies owned by the Sasikala family were also recovered during the searches.

The official clarified that entire Poes Garden premises were not searched on Friday night. Another source said the searches were conducted based on a specific tip-off that there were moves to remove a few electronic gadgets from the Poes Garden residence of Jayalalithaa to another "safe place" by the Mannargudi Family.

 "A laptop, a desktop, a tablet computer and six pen drives were recovered from the two rooms during the searches on Friday night," the source said. Poes Garden came under the siege of government agencies for the first time in 20 years on Friday night after the I-T raids. DVAC of Tamil Nadu had searched the premises for five days in 1996 when M Karunanidhi was the CM.

The raids stoked a major controversy, but the I-T department has been maintaining that only two rooms were searched and their sleuths did not go anywhere near the main building of the palatial bungalow where Jayalalithaa lived for four decades.