In One Of The Biggest Recoveries Till Date, Rs 163 Crore Cash, 100 Kg Gold Seized By IT Department From TN Firm

The Income Tax Department on Monday (16 July) conducted raids in over 50 places belonging to a road construction firm and seized over Rs 163 crore in cash and nearly 100 kg of gold as reported by PTI. The raids follow the ones it conducted last week at the premises of Christy Friedgram Industry, which supplies eggs and fortified food for the Tamil Nadu noon meal scheme.

The road construction firm- S P K and Company - is headquarter at Aruppukottai in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district. Properties belonging to the firm’s owner and his four sons were searched, Tamil daily Dinamalar reported.

S P K and Company has been constructing roads and maintaining them besides doing contract jobs that are being executed by the Highways Department. One of the premises raided by IT Department officials in Chennai’s post Besant Nagar area was that of Ravichandran, brother of former Tamil Nadu minister K N Nehru, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s strongman from Tiruchi.

Besides this, the authorities also reportedly found cash over Rs 20 crore each in three two cars, one of it belonging to Ravichandran.

The raids have allegedly upset the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and this is reportedly behind the state government’s move to delink National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) Exam results for admissions to ayurveda and homeopathy colleges in the state. The Edappadi K Palaniswami government has decided that admissions to these colleges will be based on the results of state’s plus two exams.

Last week during his visit to Tamil Nadu, Bharatiya Janta Party President Amit Shah had termed that Tamil Nadu is one of the most corrupt states in the country, upsetting the AIADMK and Palaniswami government.