MK Stalin to petition Governor for action on I-T raids

Chennai: DMK working president M.K. Stalin said he would meet Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Monday with a petition seeking investigation regarding the ongoing raids against the highways contractor in the context of his being related to the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.

“We have prepared a detailed report about the ‘high profile’ raids that happened in post Jayalalithaa period in Tamil Nadu, including the ongoing raids (on contractor Nagarajan Seyyadurai of SPK group) and allotment of government tenders to his relatives,” Mr Stalin said. Speaking to reporters at Anna Arivalayam, here on Thursday, Mr Stalin said he had sought and obtained appointment with the Governor for Monday. During the meeting he would seek action against the chief minister.

More than Rs 180 crore besides 107 kg gold were seized from the residences and offices belonging to Seyyadurai and his relatives and associates.
Listing out various ‘high profile’ raids that happened post Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu, he sought to know the outcome of any investigation on those raids. “Were any case or chargesheet filed?” he asked and claimed he had ‘clinching’ evidence relating to all the past raids. He wondered why no action has been reported in the raids even after several months have lapsed.

He alleged that the income tax searches in the state happening for the last two years, appeared to be conducted for the benefit of the BJP government at the Centre. In a statement here, he listed out the I-T searches conducted in the state in since the last two years, beginning with the searches on the premises of Karur Anbunathan and the latest being those on the premises of SPK & Co.

“With no further action beyond the searches, it sends out a message to the people that the exercise was carried out for the benefit of the BJP,” he said and added that the searches seemed to be a pressure tactics. The DMK leader also demanded the income tax department to hand over the investigation reports to the CBI.

Asked about the governor’s review meeting, he replied, from Mr Purohit’s itinerary it was clear that he is going to participate in some functions and not to review. “The DMK will continue to agitate if he continues to undertake such review meetings with the officials,” Mr Stalin warned.

On actor Rajinikanth backing the Chennai-Salem green corridor, he said it was not a surprise to him. “You may be surprised over Rajini supporting all the Central programmes, but we are not surprised. As far as DMK is concerned, we want the government to implement the project with the full cooperation of the locals. An expert team could be constituted to find out an alternate route to implement the project,” he said.