Taxmen raid residence of DMK leader Duraimurugan
Chennai: Income tax sleuths Saturday conducted searches at the residence of senior DMK leader Duraimurugan at Katpadi in Vellore district over suspected use of unaccounted money for electioneering.
This comes days after tax raids led to a political storm in neighbouring Karnataka.
The tax officials along with personnel from the election flying squad arrived late last night at the residence of the DMK treasurer and conducted searches early on Saturday morning.
Highly placed sources in the investigation wing of the Income Tax Department told PTI that the raids were carried out. They indicated that the searches were carried out to detect suspected tax evasion vis-a-vis use of unaccounted money for electioneering.
The DMK has fielded Duraimurugan's son, D M Kathir Anand, from the Vellore seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Details like if unaccounted money was unearthed were not immediately known.
Duraimurugan alleged that the raids were a "conspiracy" by some political leaders who could not face them in the electoral arena.
"They (tax officials) have gone with the understanding that we have nothing (to hide)," he told reporters. The DMK leader also questioned the timing of the raid.
"This is not the time to hold searches, be it tax or other authorities, when we are in the midst of full-fledged election campaign," he said.
The tax sleuths had carried out pre-dawn raids at 15 to 20 locations in Karnataka, including Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan, Ramanagar and Shivamogga, on Thursday.
Karnataka Minor Irrigation minister C S Puttaraju and his nephew and close associates of PWD minister H D Revanna were among those whose residences were raided.
Later, Congress and JD(S) leaders led by Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and former chief minister Siddaramaiah had staged a demonstration in Bengaluru against the raids.
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KKR land Green for record-breaking Rs 25.20 crore; Shaw, Sarfaraz go unsold
Abu Dhabi (PTI): Kolkata Knight Riders splurged a record-breaking Rs 25.20 to land top Australian all-rounder Cameron Green even as Indian stars Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan went unsold in the Indian Premier League players' auction here on Tuesday.
Green surpassed compatriot Mitchell Starc (Rs 24.75 crore) to become the most expensive overseas player at an IPL auction. This was after Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings were involved in an intense bidding war for him before the latter emerged winner.
KKR also went after Venkatesh Iyer before pulling out of the race against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who fetched the services of the India all-rounder for Rs 7 crore.
As far as Green is concerned, his salary for the season would still be Rs 18 crore (USD 1.9 million) as the rest of the amount will go towards the BCCI's player development programme as per the rules of the auction for foreign players.
Green, who previously turned up for Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, has so far played 29 matches in the IPL to aggregate 707 runs and take 16 wickets.
Shaw, however, went unsold despite his fine run of form in the domestic circuit lately, and so was the case with Sarfaraz, who smashed a 22-ball 73 in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match for Mumbai on Tuesday.
Big-hitting South African batter David Miller was bought by Delhi Capitals for his base price of Rs 2 crore, but New Zealand swashbuckler Devon Conway, whose base price was also Rs 2 crore, went unsold in the auction.
Seasoned South African opener Quinton de Kock returned to his old base Mumbai Indians for a base price of Rs 1 crore.
A total of 359 players -- 246 Indians and 113 overseas players -- are part of the mini auction pool with the 10 franchises bidding to fill up a maximum of 77 slots, including 31 reserved for foreign players.
