Will prove that I am not guilty: TN Health Min on tax raids

Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar today said he was extending full cooperation to Income Tax authorities in a probe against him and asserted he would prove that he had done no wrong.
The Minister's assertion comes a day after DMK Working president M K Stalin urged Chief Minister E K Palaniswami to sack him after Income Tax authorities attached his properties.
Terming the DMK demand condemnable and anguishing, Vijayabaskar said, "Due to political vendetta, the Leader of the Opposition (in the assembly) is making allegations of corruption and it has become his wont."
The Minister said Stalin was hurling "unfounded allegations," and added that time will "teach him a lesson".

Stalin had made the demand following provisional attachment of the Minister's properties, including a stone quarry and about 100 acres of land in Pudukottai District, by the I-T Department as part of its tax evasion probe.
Following this, the registration department, too, had barred registration of attached properties.

The DMK leader had also made other allegations including about the Gutkha scam. Vijayabaskar, in a statement here, gave a rebuttal seeking to disprove Stalin's claims.
"I have been giving full cooperation to tax authorities," He said, adding he was summoned thrice and on all such occasions he had been to the tax office promptly.

"I will soon legally prove that I did no wrong," he asserted.
He said the land in his native Pudukottai district, which has now been attached, was bought in 2007 by his family when the AIADMK was not in power and he was neither an MLA nor did he hold any other public office.
The minister said he had launched a stone quarry business in 2007 but he transferred the administrate responsibilities of the firm to his father through a Power of Attorney after he joined the Cabinet.
The firm was compliant with all tax laws and "I would like to make it categorical that my family is not engaged in running a benami enterprise," he said.

Vijayabaskar is in the eye of a political storm and the ruling AIADMK also faces attack since tax authorities conducted multiple raids on premises belonging to him, his aides and associates in April this year.
The searches led to unearthing of documents on alleged routing of about Rs 89 crore to voters of R K Nagar. The byelection in that assembly segment was cancelled subsequently.
Also, tax raids at the premises of a Gutkha manufacturer last year had led to seizure of documents which allegedly claimed payout to Vijayabaskar, and officials including a state top police official.