Income Tax department officials conducted raids on Sunday night at houses of the Tamil Manila Congress candidate for the Mettupalayam assembly constituency, T.R. Shanmugasundaram in Thimmampalayam and Coimbatore corporation councillor K.A. Adhinarayanan on R.G. Street.
Senior officials, who confirmed the raid, said that in the first instance, law and order was disturbed in the Mettupalayam assembly constituency when AIADMK members protested at Thimmampalayam, near Mr. Shanmugasundaram’s house complaining that he distributed money to voters.
Soon thereafter, Income Tax officials went to Mr. Shanmugasundaram’s house where they were conducting raids. The officials said at the time of filing the report the raid was still on.
In Coimbatore, the election officials said that soon after a clash between Mr. Adhinarayanan and the BJP candidate for Coimbatore South Vanathi Srinivasan, Income Tax officials raided his shop on R.G. Street.
Mr. Adhinarayanan, however, denied any such raids at his shop and said that he was at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital as he was hurt in the clash with the BJP workers. Meanwhile, sources also said that the Income Tax officials were also searching the house of Ravanan, a relative of AIADMK general secretary and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s aide Sasikala. Senior officials said that the IT raids at Ravanan’s house yielded nothing incriminating. The officials found Rs. 3 lakh but since there were documents to establish that it was not unaccounted money, they did not seize the cash.
