I-T department raids tax evaders' properties in Tamil Nadu

The Income Tax officials conducted raids on the houses and education institutions of former minister Jagath Ratchagan. Some of the other houses and offices that it raided include Karur businessman's house Anbunathan, contractor Sekhar Reddy, former minister Natham Viswanathan's houses. The officials also raided the Gutka manufacturing mills, following the recent scam. It also raided the Buhari groups.The Seyadu Beedi Company was also raided.

After the RK Nagar by-election issue, the Income Tax officials have also raided the houses and offices of few other prominent persons, including Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar, actor Sarathkumar and Radhika Sarathkumar. The intention was to identify the money trail between Sarathkumar and the AIADMK party.

Raid at the government contractor’s house:

Thyagarajan is a Highways contractor and son of former Highways executive engineer Gurumurthy. His father, wife and he were individually managing three contract companies named Gurumurthy Engineering Enterprises, GG Infrastructures and Thiyagarajan Enterprises. Thyagarajan had recently purchased a property from a former Inspector General’s son Michael Arul. 

Sooner, it was found by the Income Tax Department that the property was sold through gross under-valuation in order to evade tax. It was also found that the sale was carried out showing just Rs 10 crore, whereas the original sale was executed for an alleged sum of Rs 26 crore. Following this, from Friday, July 20, 2017, a raid has been carried out in Thyagarajan’s house, wherein they seized heaps of gold and diamonds that worth many crores.

Presenting this matter to the reporters, the Income Tax Officials said, "In a three-day raid at the contractor Thyagarajan’s house, we have seized gold and diamonds of the worth 16.8 Cr. We have also seized 41 lakh cash along with some important documents and a diary. We would need to do an estimation based on those documents. The former IG’s son Michael Arul, who is living with a German woman, had sold his property showing just Rs 10 crore, whereas the original sale was executed for a sum of Rs 26 crore. Earlier, he absconded fearing the investigation, but he appeared yesterday morning. He has confessed that he has evaded income tax. We will collect the amount from him. Meanwhile, we are also examining the ways through which he is making money.”