Income Tax department officials seized Rs 1.48 crore of unaccounted cash from a worker of TTV Dhinakaran’s party AMMK in Tamil Nadu’s Theni district on Wednesday night.
The raids were conducted at the premises of an AMMK leader in Theni where assembly bypolls are scheduled tomorrow. All the 39 Lok Sabha seats of Tamil Nadu also go to polls tomorrow.
The I-T department’s director general (investigations) B Murali Kumar said the money was found in a shop in Andipatti in Theni district after the overnight raids, which ended at 5:30am, according to news agency PTI. It was neatly packed in 94 packets and envelops on which the ward number, number of voters and the amount of Rs 300 per voter was written, PTI reported.
Kumar said the premises belong to a functionary of the TTV Dhinakaran-led AMMK and that the party’s office functions from the ground floor.
”All these wards are within the Andipatti assembly segment which is going to bypoll tomorrow,” the officer was quoted as saying by PTI.
The tax official said the “sworn statement of the person present in the premises was recorded and he said that Rs 2 crore in cash was brought in there for distribution to voters in Andipatti panchayat union area on April 16.”
The department will send a report on the operation to the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Election Commission in New Delhi, a senior official said. The tax department had launched a search at a store on Tuesday night following inputs about the presence of suspected cash there.
The raiding team comprised officials of the Election Commission-appointed surveillance squad and the income tax department.
When the team, comprised officials of the Election Commission-appointed surveillance squad and the I-T department, arrived at the store, believed to be run by a supporter of the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), the shopkeeper fled the spot after downing the shutter.
An argument broke out between AMMK workers and the officials and police had to open fire in the air during the raids to disperse the party’s supporters, who objected to the action being taken
No one was injured in the firing, a senior official said. Seven people were detained in connection with the incident and police have filed an FIR against a number of people, officials said.
The Election Commission on Tuesday cancelled the Lok Sabha election to the Vellore constituency in the southern state on Tuesday after officials recovered huge amounts of cash from a building allegedly linked to a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader last week.