Tamil Nadu: Ahead of RK Nagar by-poll, IT-dept raids Minister C Vijayabaskar, actor Sarath Kumar

The Income Tax department raided the residence and properties of Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijayabaskar and actor turned politician​ Sarathkumar, on Friday morning.

The raids were also conducted at the residence of former AIADMK MP Chitalapakkam Rajendran and DR MGR Medical University vice chancellor S. Geethalakshmi. 

This comes as a major embarrassment for Palaniswami government ahead of the April 12 by-poll in RK Nagar assembly constituency, the seat fell vacant after the former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's death on December 5.

The minister, one of the key members of the Sasikala faction, who is currently lodged in a Bangalore jail, has always known to be her loyalist.

Vijayabaskar charged the IT officials of highhandedness and said that the raid at his house began at 4 am and still going on. “I am cooperating with the officials. But they did not even allow my daughter to go to school,” he told reporters outside his official residence in Greenways Road even as the officials were conducting the raid.

He claimed that they did not seize even Rs 10,000 in cash from his house. Tension prevails outside the minister’s residence where a large number of AIADMK functionaries have gathered.

They were raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP government at the centre.

Former minister Thalavai Sundaram accused the IT department of conducting a raid at the minister's residence to bring a disrepute to the party in the run-up to the by-poll. "IT officials are threatening the minister. AIADMK party men will not be frightened by such raid," he declared.

(With inputs from G JAGANNATH​)