IT dept raids offices of Jaya TV, Sasikala relatives in TN
Updated by admin on
Thursday, November 09, 2017 08:39 AM IST
Chennai:
The IT department on October 9 morning raided the office of Jaya TV channel at Eekkaatuthangal in Chennai, and the premises of several relatives of V K Sasikala including Dinakaran, Dhinakaran, Vivek Jayaraman (Sasikala’s nephew) who runs the channel and Ilavarasi’s daughter in Tamil Nadu.
An IT department official said the searches related to charges of concealment of income and evasion of tax. The department had received certain information about the activities of the channel and its senior officials, the official said.
The channel was launched by former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, Jaya TV, along with Sasikala and some of her relatives. Of late, it was being run by Sasikala's nephew Vivek Jayaraman.
The channel has fallen out of favour ever since Sasikala, Dinakaran and her other family members have been kept away from the party. With Sasikala in jail, and various relatives facing several cases filed by the Union government, the AIADMK faction owing allegiance to chief minister Edappadi Palaniswamy has been putting pressure on Jaya TV and Namadhu MGR newspaper to hand over these media organizations to it. However, the Sasikala family has been resisting the move.
The channel has been recently critical of the Palaniswamy government, and openly supported Sasikala nephew T T V Dinakaran and his faction of the party. .
IT officials’ search included the residence of Vivek in Chennai, and Jazz Cinemas owned by Sasikala's family members, and Sasikala faction office-bearer Pugazhendi in Bengaluru.
The searches have come at a crucial time when the Election Commission is still grappling with the issue of the party election symbol, as both factions have claimed right to it. The Palaniswamy-OPS faction has the support of the Union government.
The Palaniswamy faction had adopted a resolution asking the management of Jaya TV and Namadhu MGR to hand over these media organizations to it, and warned of action if they failed to do so.
