Properties worth about ₹1,600 crore, said to belong to ousted AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala, have been provisionally attached under the provisions of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, Income Tax department sources said on Monday.
The nine properties, located in Chennai, Puducherry, and Coimbatore, were allegedly procured after the November 8, 2016, demonetisation, the sources said.
They said the Initiating Officer of Benami Prohibition Unit (BPU) under the Income Tax Department, Chennai, has issued attachment orders under Section 24(3) of the Act, and sent them to the respective Sub-Registrars and Registrar of Companies. The provisional attachment is for 90 days.
A communication has also been sent to authorities of the special prison at Parappana Agrahara in Bengaluru, where Sasikala has been lodged since 2017 after being convicted in a ‘disproportionate assets’ case against her friend and late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
According to the sources, after demonetisation, she allegedly procured the properties by using up ₹1500 crore in demonetised notes under fictitious names. This was unearthed during a massive raid conducted in November 2017.
Two years ago, income tax officials had conducted ‘Operation Clean Money’, with the objective of unearthing benami assets of ousted AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala, at 37 locations across Chennai, Coimbatore and Puducherry.
“Incriminating documents” were seized from about 150 other locations.
The Income Tax Department concluded that the seized documents pertained to benami assets, as they were found to have been purchased in the names of household staff, including car drivers, helps, and assistants.
Around 1,800 officials had been involved and the places searched included the former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence.
The attached properties include a mall at Perambur in Chennai, a resort in the name of a Puducherry jewellery and a Coimbatore-based paper mill. Spectrum Mall of Ganga Foundation in Chennai, a resort in the name of Sri Lakshmi Jewellery in Puducherry and property in the name of Senthil Papers and Boards,Coimbatore, the order said.
