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Strap: Dinakaran alleges these were only to malign the image of Chinnamma and will continue till bye elections in RK Nagar gets over

Pressure on the Mannargudi clan continues relentlessly with follow up income tax raids on businesses and businessmen suspected to be close to jailed and sidelined AIADMK leader VK Sasikala. Income tax personnel began raids early on Tuesday morning at 33 premises belonging to three different business groups.

Raids were taking place at Chennai and Madurai, sources said.

According to a senior IT official, the premises related to Ganga Foundations, Marg, Milan and Patel groups were being searched by its personnel. This is the second major raid after its recent raids at 187 locations in different states earlier this month.

The raids are believed to be based on information gleaned from investigations and interrogation of those raided earlier. Many friends, relatives and business associates with Sasikala including her nephew TTV Dinakaran and Jaya TV CEO and relative Vivek Jayaram, were raided and questioned by the IT personnel.

However, on Tuesday, IT officials denied that today’s raids had any link to the raids on friends and relatives of Sasiakala or businesses connected with them. What the IT officials were investigating are issues relating to the operation of shell companies.

Though the IT denied any link between earlier raids at the present one, TTV Dinakaran told reporters at Tiruchy that raids will continue till bye polls to Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency were held on December 21.

That is how they think they can malign the image of Chinnamma but people give them a fitting reply, he said. In the previous raids, the IT sleuths had detected tax evasion to the tune of Rs 1430 crore.