PUDUCHERRY: Hours before the campaign ended, Income Tax sleuths raided the house of Campaign Manager of Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and ex-MLA A John Kumar. They seized Rs. 14 lakhs in cash, disclosed John Kumar, who had quit his seat to facilitate Narayanasamy’s entry into the assembly.
The ex-MLA of Nellithope, a businessman who runs cable TV distribution, real estate and other interests, is also the manager of Narayanasamy’s campaign that is drawing to a close at 5 pm today.
On Thursday morning, the last day of campaign, a team of about seven I-T personnel from Chennai and Puducherry knocked Kumar’s Savaripadayatchi Street at 6 am. Information about the search brought Narayanasamy to Kumar’s residence almost immediately – the chief minister reached there just fifteen minutes later.
In the midst of a hard fight between incumbent Congress’s candidate, Narayanasamy, and opposition candidate Om Sakthi Sekar of AIADMK, who is backed by principal opposition party AINRC and BJP, there were allegations of cash distribution and other malpractices at Nellithope constituency.
There were allegations that Kumar was receiving black money in demonetised currency notes from various persons for use in elections. However, the outcome of today’s inspection is not immediately known, as the officials are still at it.
Reacting to the development, John Kumar termed the raid as a conspiracy hatched by the opposition in collusion with centre-ruling BJP to defeat Narayanasamy in the November 19 polls. “The fear of defeat has made them raise unfound allegations and prevent Narayanasamy from winding up the campaign,” charged John Kumar.
This is a sequel to the previous inspection on September 17 following allegations by opposition parties that Kumar had resigned the post after accepting money. Then, the I-T department had seized Rs 1.8 crores from his house. However John Kumar said that he had voluntarily disclosed to the I-T team the full and factual details including the sale of an agricultural land for Rs 1.6 crore.
“I handed over the cash to them. As the transaction was done on September 14 (three days before the inspection) I am yet to get the details related to the sale of the property. I will submit the documents when I receive it,” he had told the media then.