Income Tax department raids relatives of Sasikala, Dinakaran

Chennai: Income Tax (IT) officials on Thursday raided 187 locations belonging to relatives of jailed AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala, her nephew T.T.V. Dinakaran and organisations connected to them in several cities, said a senior IT official.

He said the search is in connection with unexplained routing of cash post-demonetisation through shell companies connected with them.

Ten groups of IT officials were involved in "the search exercise taking place across Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and other places", an IT official said preferring anonymity.

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The raids began at 0600 hours. The tax officials also searched the residence of M. Natarajan, husband of Sasikala in Thanjavur, according to reports.

They also raided the Kodanad Tea Estate belonging to late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

The official said the IT department will look at routing of funds within India and there are other agencies to look at routing of funds outside India.

The IT officials are also searching the AIADMK Tamil daily Namadhu MGR.

--IANS