Tamil Nadu: Income Tax Raids Underway At Over 50 Properties Of G Square, A Real Estate Firm Closely Linked To DMK First Family

Income Tax officials are currently conducting raids at more than 50 properties of private real estate developer G Square in Tamil Nadu.

The raids are being conducted at the head office in Chennai, Coimbatore and several other places across Tamil Nadu.

Besides G-Square offices, residence of M K Mohan, DMK legislator from Anna Nagar constituency in Chennai city, is also being searched by the IT sleuths.

Outside Tamil Nadu, the I-T sleuths are also conducting searches on the company offices in Karnataka.

The searches began around 7 am in multiple offices of the company located in Chennai, Coimbatore and in Karnataka's Bengaluru, as well as at the residence of the company owner Bala alias Ramajayam.

According to reports in local media, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were deployed outside the premises where raids are being conducted.

Latest raids come a week after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai released ‘DMK Files' in which he provided details of vast properties owned by the DMK first family, Ministers, MLAs and MPs.

He pointed out that the revenue of the realtor company G Square witnessed a staggering increase since 2019, because of its proximity with Tamil Nadu’s ruling party.

G Square has been in the eye of a storm over allegations that it has close ties with the family members of Chief Minister and DMK Supremo M K Stalin.

The company, which aggregates land parcels for selling to big corporates and setting up IT parks (besides several luxury housing projects), has seen a meteoric rise in its fortunes in the last couple of years.

In April 2021, the Income Tax department officials raided the residence of Bala alias Ramajayam, the managing director of G Square Realtor's Private Limited. During the raid, IT department sleuths also searched premises belonging to a real-estate firm. 2021 IT raids at G-Square premises were said to be an part of an investigation against Sabareesan Vedamurthy, son-in-law of Stalin.

During the same day, IT officials also conducted raids at premises belonging to Senthamarai Sabareesan, daughter of Stalin, and Karthik Mohan, a close associate of Sabareesan and son of MLA Mohan.

(Updated at 10.51 am)