MADURAI: Income Tax officials raided the premises of Madurai Aadheenam here on Saturday and seized some documents. The raids came in the wake of anointment of controversial godman Swamy Nithyananda as the 293rd pontiff of the mutt on April 27. When Nithyananda visited the Madurai Aadheenam, before his anointment, he presented a gold plated silver sceptre to Arunagirinatha Desigar, the 292nd pontiff of the mutt.
Besides, Nithyananda donated `1 crore recently to the mutt from the Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam. He also promised another `4 crore for the Madurai Mutt.
He even announced that he would donate a gold throne, a gold sceptre and gold ornaments to Arunagirinatha Desigar during the Pattabishekam ceremony of Nithyananda to be held in Tiruvannamalai.
In this backdrop, a seven-member team of the Income Tax department led by Sundaresan, the Deputy Commissioner of the department, conducted the raid on the Aadheenam premises on the South Aavani Moola Street from around 8.30 am on Saturday. They closed all the entrances of the Aadheenam and police personnel guarded the entrances. The searches continued till 1.30 pm.