CHENNAI: In pre-dawn raids launched by Income Tax sleuths, 100 crores in cash and about 90-kg gold was seized from multiple premises of SPK and Co Expressway Pvt Ltd, a road contract firm reportedly linked to political bigwigs. Sources said the officials had sent bankers and values into 10-12 premises of the company to assess out the accurate value of the total seizure. Confirming the huge haul, a senior I-T official denied the reports of political motive to the raids. “The raids are being conducted as there have been tax evasions by the company in road contracts,” said the official. Interestingly, in most of the places raided, cash was found kept in travel bags and in parked cars, indicating that the owners had already anticipated the raids and were trying to transport the cash and gold to safer places.
It is learnt that Nagarajan Seyyadurai, managing director of SPK, had bagged several of state government contracts as he was reportedly close to some political bigwigs but evaded taxes. When queried about the value of tax evasions, the official said it would be known only after the investigation in a couple of months. The businessman is said to run construction companies, hotels and spinning mills.
The official said at first raids were conducted at 22 places, but as the day progressed, the exercise spread to 30 premises. Initially, 17 premises in Chennai, four in Aruppukottai (Virudhunagar district) and one in Katpadi (Vellore) were raided, the official said. Seyyadurai’s residence in Aruppukottai was among the places raided. Raids were also conducted at the Besant Nagar premises of TVH Group chairman N Ravichandran.
Even an under-construction building in Abhiramapuram was not spared. “Officials entered the premises at 5 am and took away some documents by noon,” said a company staffer at the site. The raids are likely to continue on Tuesday, said sources. The searches come on the heels of I-T raids on the premises of Christy Friedgrams, a major supplier to the noon meal and Integrated Child Development Services schemes.
Stalin trains guns on EPS over raids
CHENNAI: Reacting to the IT department's raids on SPK firm involved in road construction works, DMK working president MK Stalin on Monday demanded that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami resign to pave the way for further raids and independent probe.
In a statement released here on Monday, he alleged that the CM's relative Subramaniam was a partner of SPK firm and the trio of Subramaniam-Seyyadurai-Nagarajan had bagged several contracts for road projects in the state.
Recalling the IT raids held in the recent past, Stalin demanded that the culprits be brought to book and the money they had looted to be transferred to the exchequer.
(With inputs from Madurai)