While Chennai bore the brunt of Sunday night’s heavy rain which resulted in water-logged arterial roads and by lanes, most of the city residents remained indoors on Monday. The city traffic went haywire from early Monday morning and the Government declared holidays for all educational establishments in Chennai and three neighbouring districts. But the raids on the houses of the relatives and associates of the jailed VK Sasikala continued on Monday also.
“It is rains and raids,” said a senior official of the department who refused to divulge more information. “You can write whatever you feel like writing. But it will be on your own risks. We are going ahead with the task at our hands. As on today, the department has nothing to disclose about the Operation Clean Drive,” said the official.
He said Dr KS Sivakumar, a close relative of VK Sasikala and Poonkundram, who was a trusted aide of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa were questioned by the Income Tax officials on Monday. “We have asked TV Divakaran, Sasikala’s brother, to be present in the I-T office either on Tuesday or Wednesday for questioning. That’s all we could say right now,” said the official. Dr Sivakumar is the son-in-law of Sundaravadanam, Sasikala’s elder brother. He has been Jayalalithaa’s personal physician for the last ten years.
Pugazhendi, the Karnataka unit secretary of the AIADMK, who is the close confidante of Sasikala too appeared before the income tax officials at the Chennai office on Monday.
The raids which commenced early Thursday morning continued on Monday too, making it one of the biggest ever operation seen in Tamil Nadu in the recent past. “A mission of this magnitude takes months of preparation. This was not an overnight decision. The secrecy of the operation was maintained up to the point we reached the nearly 200 premises and that was the beauty of the mission,” he disclosed.
He laughed it off when asked whether the raids were politically motivated. “You journalists were writing till the other day about the illegal properties amassed by these people. When we inspect it, you are changing the version of your own findings,” said the official reminding about the series of news reports which appeared in the media about the illegal properties of Sasikala and her relatives.
But other sources in the department and special branch police confirmed that raids were happening at the residences of Vivek Jayaraman, managing director of Jaya TV and Jazz Cinemas and his sister Krishna Priya. Both are the children of Ilavarasi, sister-in-law of Sasikala. Ilavarasi too is an accused in the disproportionate assets case and undergoing imprisonment with Sasikala at the Parappana Agrahara Prison in Bangalore.