IT raids at Poes Garden: Jayalalithaa's niece cries foul

Poes Garden, which used to be the seat of power in Tamil Nadu when J Jayalalithaa was the Chief Minister, was raided by the Income Tax department on Friday night.

Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa Jayakumar, who was stopped 500 metres away from the residence, claimed that the "illegal" search operation was a part of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretaryVK Sasikala and her family's conspiracy.

"The IT did not inform us about the raids. They broke into our property. It's illegal. I am going to take legal action against them. I am the rightful heir of Jayalalithaa. It's conspiracy by Sasikala and family," Jayakumar said.

Meanwhile, AIADMK leader Apsara Reddy said that the Opposition is insecure of the growing popularity of party leader TTV Dhinakaran and jailed Sasikala.

"It's absolutely disgraceful that a state administration is cracking down a temple for all our cadres that is Jayalalithaa's home. Without any summons, without any intimation they barged in during such odd hours in the house is very suspect. They want to crackdown the political opponents because they are insecure of the growing popularity of TTV Dhinakaran and Sasikala. We will oppose his. Even if they arrest all our cadres then it is the violation of human rights. This type of political thuggery and political goon in our state should be sent home," she said.

Jaya TV CEO Vivek Jayaraman also arrived in Poes Garden as IT raids continue.

Jayaraman said, "We are hurt today because of these IT raids. This is place where Jaya lived. This is a temple. They have taken away the letters people written Jaya."

Sasikala's supporters, who were protesting against the raids conducted by the IT department on late Friday night, were detained by the police.

The raids were conducted at jailed Sasikala and her relatives' properties at Poes Garden.

Soon after the raid, heavy security has been deployed to avoid any untoward incident.

Condemning the raids, sidelined AIADMK deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran supporter and former MLA, V. P. Kalairajan told media, "This is just political vendetta and targeting of one family".

This swoop comes after November 9, where the I-T official raided Sasikala's family members and premises of Jaya TV in Chennai and unearthed an unaccounted income of over Rs 1,400 crore.

The raids on 187 locations, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad and New Delhi, were conducted by over 1,000 officials, who split into more than a dozen teams on day one of the searches on November 9.

The raids were conducted based on inputs, including those from the Finance Ministry's Financial Intelligence Unit.

The office of Tamil channel Jaya TV in Chennai, TTV Dhinakaran's farm house off Auroville near Puducherry and premises of several other relatives of Sasikala at various other places were searched.