The properties of former Tamil Nadu health minister Dr C. Vijayabaskar, who has been under the Income Tax scanner since 2017, were raided today by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC).
The sleuths searched more than 43 places belonging to the former minister, including his residences and educational institutions in his hometown Pudukottai, and Chennai, in connection with the disproportionate assets case filed against him and his wife Ramya (A1 and A2 in the FIR).
AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami condemned the raids and called it vendetta politics. Vijayabaskar is the fourth ex-minister in former CM Palaniswami’s cabinet to come under the DVAC scanner. AIADMK’s former supremo Jayalalithaa, too, was convicted in the disproportionate assets case, and later the apex court convicted her close aide V.K. Sasikala and others too for the same.
Vijayabaskar was one of the powerful ministers in the Palaniswami’s cabinet, and ran several educational institutions in the name of ‘Mother Teresa’.
The FIR said that “Vijayabaskar was involved in corrupt activities and intentionally enriched himself by acquiring assets in his name, in the name of his dependent wife Ramya and daughters and in the name of the business firms, in which he and his wife are proprietors or shareholders. These assets were disproportionate to his known sources of income”.
The FIR further said that Vijayabaskar “was in possession of pecuniary resources and properties in the form of deposits in banks, jewels, motor vehicles, agriculture lands, house sites, insurance policies, investment in partnership firms and buildings to the tune of Rs.6.41 crore in his name as well as in the name of Ramya as on April 2016 but it grew to Rs. 57.77 crores as on March 3, 2021”.
In 2017, Vijayabaskar premises were searched by Income Tax officials, just days ahead of the controversial bypolls to the high-profile R.K. Nagar constituency, which was later rescinded. He is also under the CBI scanner for the multi-crore gutkha scam.
Vijayabaskar later briefed the media, and said he is a law-abiding citizen and that the educational institutions are run by his brother for several years now, and that it cannot be related to the raids.
