Tamil Nadu: I-T raids at Kanimozhi's residence over, nothing found

Nothing was found at Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and the party's Thoothukudi candidate K Kanimozhi's residence and office in the southern port town, which were raided by the income tax (I-T) department and the Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday night, said sources.

"On Tuesday evening, I-T department conducted raids at a house in which Kanimozhi is staying on the information shared by the local administration," sources added.

According to sources, Kanimozhi was present during the raids and cooperated with the team. However, "I-T dept found nothing but verification is on."

The raids have been completed.

Reportedly, it was alleged that "lots of cash" was stashed on the first floor of her house in Thoothukudi.

This comes two days before the Tamil Nadu votes on April 18 for 39 seats.

The DMK candidate from Thoothukudi Lok Sabha seat, Kanimozhi is the sister of party chief MK Stalin.

Even as the house was being searched a posse of DMK supporters gathered outside and staged a demonstration raising anti-Modi slogans.

Reacting to the raids, DMK president Stalin said: "I got a message that Kanimozhi's premises is being raided. BJP candidate Tamilisai Soundarajan's premises has crores and crores of rupees are kept there. Why no raids there? Who will take action? Modi used I-T department, Central Bureau of Investigation, Judiciary and latest in the row is Election Commission of India to interfere in the electoral process."

Stalin said," They are doing this because of the fear of losing."

"This is basically murder of democracy. Rs. 2000 note is being widely offered in the elections, will you report this? In Theni constituency, Rs. 1000 note is being offered to voters, what about that? Tamil Nadu minister Velumani is accused of distributing money, his close aide Sabesan's premises is raided, no one reported, no news on this," he added.

Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu's chief electoral officer said that the Income Tax (IT) department and Election Commission (EC) had recovered Rs 135.41 crore from raids conducted across Tamil Nadu till Tuesday.

Sahoo said 1022 kilograms gold and 645 kilograms of silver was recovered in the raids which took place all over the state and are still ongoing in many areas, bringing the total value of precious metals recovered to Rs 294.38 crore.

Meanwhile, voting has been cancelled in the state's Vellore Lok Sabha constituency, in the wake of seizures of large amounts of unaccounted cash.