I-T dept attached Sasikala’s assets worth ₹1,600 crore, officials say
NEWDELHI:The Income Tax department has attached ‘benami’ assets worth ₹1,600 crore belonging to VK Sasikala, former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s aide, officials said on Tuesday.
“Nine properties, including a mall in Chennai and a resort in Puducherry were attached by the IT under section 24(3). All these properties were purchased between November 8, 2016 and December 31, 2016 – a thin period when Jayalalithaa was undergoing treatment in Apollo Hospitals at Chennai,” IT department officials said.
Sasikala is lodged in a Bengaluru jail after being convicted in a disproportionate assets case.
“These nine properties were not bought and registered in the name of Sasikala. But, the incriminating documents retrieved by IT officials through the raids conducted in former CM Jaya’s room in Poes Garden Bungalow in November 2017 had witnessed that these properties were purchased in the names of several other persons,” the officials said.
The raids had also identified that these properties were purchased with demonetised notes worth ₹1,500 crore. The officials said payments for purchasing these assets were made in “cash” and “MoUs”.
Meanwhile, Sasikala’s lawyer N Raja Senthoor Pandian denied the development, saying her properties were not attached.
“We have retrieved all the properties attached after the 2017 IT raids. Since we had submitted proper documents for the properties and retrieved. So, it inappropriate to say that Sasikala’s properties were attached,” Raja Senthoor Pandian said.