Thirty three premises of three prominent business groups were raided on Tuesday by sleuths of the Income Tax Department which is being seen as a continuation of the five-day raids carried out at 187 places in Tamil Nadu from November 9.
Out of the 33 places raided on Tuesday, 21 were in Chennai and the rest outside the capital city. Though the Income Tax officials remained tight-lipped about Tuesday’s raids, sources in the Chennai office told reporters that the mission was a follow-up to the earlier raids in the business and residential premises of the jailed VK Sasikala, close aide of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
Raids were carried out at S2 Cinemas, the previous owners of the 11-theatre luxe Multiplex at Phoenix Mall, Velachery. The theatre complex was sold by S2 Cinemas to Vivek Jayaraman, nephew of Sasikala in 2015, a deal which hogged the limelight at that time. Vivek Jayaraman relaunched the luxe Multiplex under the brand name Jazz Cinema.
The IT department had raided Jazz Cinemas early this month and they have suspicions about the sale deed between S2 Cinemas and Vivek Jayaraman’s company.
“We had earlier raided Jazz Cinemas, but we weren’t convinced with the documents. There is undervaluation of the property for evading tax,” said an IT department official.