The Income Tax Department on Wednesday attached 3.52 acres of land owned by expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader VK Sasikala in a disproportionate assets case, reported The News Minute. The property, estimated to be worth Rs 100 crore, was attached under the Benami Property Transaction Act.
The disproportionate assets case pertains to former Chief Minister late J Jayalalithaa, Sasikala and two of the expelled leader’s relatives amassing wealth of around Rs 65 crore, which were disproportionate to their known sources of income.
A trial court in Karnataka had found them guilty in 2014 and ordered that the accused be jailed for four years and fined Rs 100 crore that can be recovered by seizing their properties.
However, the Karnataka High Court in 2015 acquitted all four, arguing that the disproportionate assets amounted to less than 10% of the total income.
Following Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016, the Supreme Court had upheld the Karnataka trial court’s order and Sasikala and two of her relatives – sister-in-law Ilavarasi and nephew Sudhakaran – were jailed for four years in February 2017.
Sasikala was released from prison in February this year.
According to the 2014 trial court order passed by former Judge Micheal Cunha, Jayalalithaa and Sasikala owned around 30 acres of land in Payyanur in Tamil Nadu’s Chengalpattu district. Part of this land belonged to music director Gangai Amaran, who had deposed that the property was forcefully taken away from him.
“His [Amaran] family members were not willing to sell the land, but Sudhakaran [Sasikala’s nephew] and some officers came to his house and took the signatures of Gangai Amaran and his wife on 7th October and gave them two demand drafts, for Rs 13,10,000,” the judgement had said.
Sasikala had bought five properties from Amaran for Rs 1,95,000, Rs 1,60,000, Rs 1,70,000, Rs 1,50,000 and Rs 1,50,000. The land and the farmhouse built on it are now estimated to value more than Rs 100 crore.
A government notice about the seizure of the property has been pasted by Income Tax Department officials on the entrance walls and gate of the property, reported the Hindustan Times.
So far, Income Tax Department officials have attached over 60 properties belonging to Sasikala. In September last year, the department had also attached a bungalow owned by Sasikala that was being constructed opposite Jayalalithaa’s home in Poes Garden, Chennai.
The bungalow was being built for Sasikala to live in after she was released from prison.
Three days after she got out of prison, authorities seized 144 acres of land in Kanchipuram district, a property measuring 26,000 square feet in Thanjavur, and another one measuring nearly 1,050 acres in Tiruvarur.
In 2017, the Income Tax Department had raided around 187 properties reportedly linked to Sasikala and her relatives and unearthed alleged tax evasion of about Rs 1,430 crore.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!