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I-T attaches Sasikala assets worth ₹100 crores
According to officials, a bungalow and its adjacent land totalling about 49 acre, which was purchased in 1994, has now been taken over by the I-T department. A government notice to this effect was pasted by officials on the entrance walls and gate of the property.
The Income Tax department on Wednesday attached a property worth ₹100 crore of expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) interim general secretary VK Sasikala at Payyanur village on the outskirts of Chennai in a disproportionate assets case.
“This is a routine follow up action under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988,” said an I-T department official on the condition of anonymity.
According to officials, a bungalow and its adjacent land totalling about 49 acre, which was purchased in 1994, has now been taken over by the I-T department. A government notice to this effect was pasted by officials on the entrance walls and gate of the property.
The department continues to seize properties belonging to Sasikala based on a 2014 court judgment on the disproportionate assets case where former Karnataka special court Judge John Michael Cunha listed properties as disproportionate assets of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, Sasikala and her family members - Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran.
Last September, the I-T department attached an under-construction bungalow owned by Sasikala and located opposite to Jayalalithaa’s sprawling residence in Chennai’s Poes Garden. The bungalow on 22,000 square feet land was being constructed for Sasikala to live in once she was back from prison. So far, more than 60 properties belonging to Sasikala have been attached by the I-T department.
After Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016, the Supreme Court upheld Cunha’s order and Sasikala and her two relatives were jailed for four years in a Bengaluru prison in February 2017.
At the time when I-T officials were at her property, Sasikala, who lives in the heart of Chennai, was visiting the home of a loyalist and former AIADMK MLA P Vetrivel, who died last year due to Covid-19. On Wednesday, Sasikala released an audio clip, condoling the death of former presidium chairman Pulamailpithan, who recently supported her, and passed earlier in the day. Pulamailpithan also wrote songs when AIADMK leaders M G Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa were celebrated actors in Tamil films. “He had a lot of affection for Thalaivar (MGR) and Amma Jayalalithaa. He spread Dravidian messages to the common people through his songs. His songs were a boost for the AIADMK cadre,” Saiskala could be purportedly heard saying in the audio clip.
Since her release from prison, Sasikala has been trying to reclaim her position in the AIADMK, which is now under the dual leadership of her former loyalists - O Panneerselvam and Edappadi Palaniswami.
