I-T officials raid Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden residence in Chennai; Sasikala's rooms searched

Chennai: Income Tax sleuths on Friday conducted searches in the office block of the Poes Garden residence of late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, a senior official said. [caption id=“attachment_4208699” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of VK Sasikala. PTI[/caption] Following inputs, a search operation was launched in the office block and a room used by jailed and deposed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala at “Veda Nilayam,” the Poes Garden residence. “We have not searched the entire Poes Garden premises. Our team went at 9 pm and only Poongundran’s room, records room and other room used by Sasikala were searched”, the top Income Tax official told PTI. Poongundran had served as an aide of the former chief minister. The seizure included a laptop and the search would be concluded soon, he added. Friday’s search comes days after multi-city searches in 187 locations linked to ten income tax assesse groups which include those linked to Sasikala, her kin and some associates. Income Tax (I-T) department sleuths had carried out simultaneous multi-city raids on 187 premises last week, including those linked to Sasikala and her nephew and deposed AIADMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran and Tamil television channel Jaya TV over suspected tax evasion. The searches at some premises continued for days.