Chennai: It's been 24 hours since over 1,000 officials swooped down almost simultaneously on over 150 properties in Tamil Nadu linked to big fish. Secrecy played a huge role in the operation that started around 5.30 am on Thursday. What provided the perfect cover for hundreds of cars hired by taxmen for the raids was an innocuous wedding sticker.
Cars moving across Chennai with "Srini Weds Mahi" flyers stuck onto their windscreens, it emerged hours into the raids, were used by Income Tax officials on the trail of the powerful family of jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala - former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's close aide who took control of the ruling party after her death in December.
Their list included relatives of Sasikala's nephew Vivek Jayaraman - the chief of Jaya TV - her niece Krishnapriya, her brother Dhivakaran, husband Jayaraman and nephew TTV Dhinakaran, the sidelined AIADMK leader currently fighting for control of the party. Individuals and companies linked to Sasikala's family are accused of massing enormous wealth in the past year.
The rented cars were numbered and sent to various points for the raids. Eventually, the wedding stickers came to be the official pass for raid cars to cross police cordons and gates.
Yesterday, a "sizeable volume of cash and documents" were seized, said an official.
Dhinakaran and his supporters have blamed the raids on the AIADMK's ruling faction led by Chief Minister E Palaniswamy and his deputy O Panneerselvam.
Cars moving across Chennai with "Srini Weds Mahi" flyers stuck onto their windscreens, it emerged hours into the raids, were used by Income Tax officials on the trail of the powerful family of jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala - former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's close aide who took control of the ruling party after her death in December.
Their list included relatives of Sasikala's nephew Vivek Jayaraman - the chief of Jaya TV - her niece Krishnapriya, her brother Dhivakaran, husband Jayaraman and nephew TTV Dhinakaran, the sidelined AIADMK leader currently fighting for control of the party. Individuals and companies linked to Sasikala's family are accused of massing enormous wealth in the past year.
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The rented cars were numbered and sent to various points for the raids. Eventually, the wedding stickers came to be the official pass for raid cars to cross police cordons and gates.
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Yesterday, a "sizeable volume of cash and documents" were seized, said an official.
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Dhinakaran and his supporters have blamed the raids on the AIADMK's ruling faction led by Chief Minister E Palaniswamy and his deputy O Panneerselvam.
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