"Weren't Raids": Poll Body On Tax Department Action Against Kanimozhi

The Income Tax department did not raid DMK leader Kanimozhi's house in Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin on Tuesday, instead conducted a verification exercise along with a joint team of police officials, the Election Commission said on Thursday.

The poll panel has sought a report of the incident by tonight from the special expenditure observer deployed by it in Tamil Nadu, officials said.

The action was taken under Section 131 of the Income Tax Act (power regarding discovery and production of evidence).

It was a verification exercise and not searches, Election Commission's Director General (Expenditure), Dilip Sharma, told reporters in New Delhi.

The commission has sought a report from the special expenditure observer, Madhu Mahajan, and it is expected to be sent by tonight, he said.

The I-T officials, accompanied by local police and election surveillance teams, conducted an inquiry after they were informed by the Tuticorin collector that there were reports of some "cash being stocked" at the location of Ms Kanimozhi, officials had earlier said.

"Nothing objectionable was found and the teams returned after conducting the inquiry that was allowed by Kanimozhi after the officials showed their official IDs," a senior I-T officer said.

Ms Kanimozhi had called the action as "undemocractic."

Following information about the searches on Tuesday, a large number of DMK workers had gathered in front of Ms Kanimozhi's house.

DMK president MK Stalin had said in a statement that the raids were an outcome of "fear of a damning defeat," for BJP's candidate Tamilisai Soundararajan in Tuticorin.

"This is murder of democracy," MK Stalin had said and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has buried the autonomous feature of the Election Commission through such actions.