THANJAVUR: Income tax (I-T) raids were conducted by department sleuths at five houses of relatives of V.K.Sasikala and T.T.V. Dhinakaran and two AIADMK (Amma) faction party functionaries here on Thursday. Nearly 20 sleuths from Madurai, Tiruchy, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi descended at the premises at 6.30 am and conducted raids till late evening. The raids could continue till 8 pm, sources at the time of filing this report said. It is not known whether any documents or materials were seized by officials during the raids.
Raided houses belong to M. Natarajan, husband of V. K. Sasikala, located at Arulananda Nagar, late Mahadevan and Thangamani, sons of Sasikala's brother late Vinothagan, located at Parisutham Nagar and Arulananda Nagar respectively, Chinnaiya, Natarajan's sister's son, Venkatesh, brother-in-law of T.T.V. Dhinakaran, located at Melavasthathchavadi, Velu Karthikeyan, joint secretary of Advocates wing of AIADMK Amma faction and Rajeswaran, state vice-president of 'Amma Peravai'.
Meanwhile, R. Vaithilingam, MP, Deputy Coordinator of united AIADMK, who was here, told presspersons that raids were conducted by the I-T department on the basis of tip off and information available to them. “This is routine and not unusual,” he said. He denied that it was arm twisting to get the 'Two Leaves' symbol for the re-united AIADMK now jointly led by EPS-OPS combine.
