Big cash haul after raid on minister triggers talk of by-poll suspension

More than the money, the material evidences collected by the I-T department may force the Election Commission to suspend the by-election. “If these evidences cannot get an election suspended for a cash-for-vote scam then no election will ever be suspended for the same reason,” Roy Jose, Additional Director, Income Tax (Investigation), Chennai told DTNext. 

The I-T department had carried out raids at 35 locations across the state on Friday. The raids started from 6 am at more than 20 locations in the city, all directly connected to the Sasikala-Dinakaran faction. A printed document that listed out the names of the party functionaries who were responsible for distribution of Rs 4,000 to each voter in different wards of RK Nagar was seized from the Greenways Road house of State Minister for Health C Vijaya Baskar, a staunch Sasikala loyalist. 

 A copy of the same document was seized from his room inside the MLAs hostel. The department has also seized documents that suggest acceptance of money by actor-politician and founder-president of All-India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK) Sarath Kumar to extend support to the Sasikala faction of AIADMK in the by-poll. 

“The actor-politician has accepted more than Rs 5 crore. We have seized the documentary evidence to prove this from his house and other establishments. We are yet to confirm where he has stashed away the money,” the I-T official said. 

Income Tax officials also said AIADMK (Amma) faction, led by Sasikala and Dinakaran had allocated Rs 80 crore for distribution at R K Nagar and major portion of the money had already been distributed. 

“We have seized about Rs  5 crore from the close aides of Minister Vijaya Baskar. We have seized Rs 2.2 crore from his associate Nainar’s house at Triplicane in the city and another Rs 1 crore was seized from another associate’s house. A sum of Rs 1.8 lakh was also seized from Vijaya Baskar’s room in MLA hostel,” the I-T official disclosed. 

Apart from Vijaya Baskar’s house and offices, the premises owned by former AIADMK MP Chitlapakkam Rajendran, the house and office of Dr MGR Medical University Vice-Chancellor Dr Geethalakshmi, MG Kulanthai Velu, who is attached to the State Health Department, the house and premises of Sarath Kumar and several other associates of Minister Vijaya Baskar were raided. 

Raids were also conducted at 11 locations in Pudukkottai, including the Minister’s properties and a quarry owned by him, two locations in Tiruchy and one location in Namakkal. The raids continued till late on Friday night and I-T department said a clear picture about the state-wide raids would emerge only after its culmination.