The massive raids launched by the Department of Income Tax on Thursday as part of its Operation Clean Money initiative in 187 locations associated with the jailed AIADMK leader, VK Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran continued on Friday.
According to sources in I-T Department, raids were completed in 40 places while the search in on in 147 locations. “This round of raids may go on till Monday as the number of people under our scanner and the bank accounts which are being probed are many,” said the official on condition of anonymity.
But the I-T Department is yet to come out with any official statement about the raids. The official who spoke to the media on Friday confided that 1,800 personnel were involved in the operation. “More than 300 bank accounts operated by the relatives and associates of Sasikala are being examined and scrutinised. Their bank lockers are also under the scanner,” he said. The official said the shell companies connected to Sasikala and her relations are being thoroughly probed by the Department
News Today, a prominent evening newspaper in Chennai has come out with an exclusive news report about the how ferocious dogs were unleashed at the sleuths of the Income Tax department when they went to one of the places for the raid. The I-T officials had to summon armed police to go ahead with their work, reports the newspaper. The official has been quoted as telling that this was the first instance of this kind he faced in his decades long profession in the Income Tax department.
Even as the sleuths were going ahead with their job in Chennai and other places in the State, political landscape in Tamil Nadu started sending out signals of new permutations and realignment. While the ruling faction of the AIADMK said there was nothing unusual in the operations, the BJP washed its hands off the “Clean Money” drive.