DMK Leader Kanimozhi’s home raided by Income Tax officials

Mangalore Today News Network

Chennai, Apr 16, 2019 : The house of lawmaker Kanimozhi, the sister of DMK chief MK Stalin was raided by the Income Tax authorities this evening amid allegations of a huge cash-for-votes racket in Tamil Nadu. A team of tax department sleuths, accompanied by officials of the Election Commission, visited the Tuticorin house of Kanimozhi ,  saying they wanted to verify allegations that "lots of cash was stashed on the first floor of the house", NDTV reported.

 

Elections for the state’s 39 Lok Sabha seats and 18 assembly seats will be held on Thursday, during the second phase of elections.  Ms Kanimozhi is the DMK candidate for  the Tuticorin seat.

Today, in a first, election for the Vellore Lok Sabha seat was cancelled following a huge cash haul, allegedly from premises linked to a DMK candidate. 

Around Rs. 11.5 crore was seized from a godown linked to Kathir Anand - the son of DMK treasurer Duraimurugan -- earlier this month. Kathir Anand is the candidate for the Vellore seat.

The haul was part of Rs. 500 crore illegal cash seized from across the state by the tax authorities.

On March 29, IT officials searched more than four premises linked to DMK treasurer Duraimurugan.

Last week, the Income-Tax Department conducted searches at 18 locations in the state. The list of sites included state capital Chennai, Namakkal and Tirunelveli. Most of the searches were on properties owned by opposition leaders.

Tax raids on opposition leaders have become one of the key issues in the ongoing elections, with most leaders accusing the BJP of targeting political rivals through government agencies.