Income Tax officials on Thursday conducted searches in over 40 premises linked to DMK MP and former union minister S. Jagathrakshagan. The searches are being conducted at educational institutions, breweries and his residences in Chennai, Kanchipuram and Arakkonam.
According to highly placed sources in the Income Tax department, the searches are a fallout of the MP’s plans to acquire shares in Coromandel Engineering Company Ltd. Coromandel Engineering is a public listed company and sources say that Jagathrakshagan’s company Accord Distillers and Brewers Pit Ltd had acquired at least 25 per cent shares, i.e., 84.68 lakh shares of Coromandel Engineering, valued at Rs 13.50 per share. A total of Rs 11 crore was paid for acquiring shares according to sources in the IT department.
Searches are being conducted at his hotels in Chennai and Puducherry, brewery in Kanchipuram, the medical college owned by him in Poonamallee and Puducherry.
His son Sundeep Anand has also been brought under the IT scanner, according to sources.
The Lok Sabha MP from Arakkonam is under the IT scanner for the second time since July 2016. A staunch Dravidian ideologist and Karunanidhi 'bhakt', Jagathrakshagan is one of the moneybags of the DMK. This is the second time Jagathrakshagan is being searched by IT.
In July 2016, his premises were searched and the tax evasion was to the tune of Rs 600 crore. During the searches in 2016, gold, cash and documents worth Rs 550 crore were seized from his premises.
