I-T Department seizes properties worth ₹100 crore from Sasikala

The Income Tax Department has seized 11 properties owned by expelled AIADMK leader VK Sasikala, sources said on Wednesday.

The properties – spread across 24 acres in Payanoor village – were reportedly brought between 1991 and 1996 when the late J Jayalalithaa was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

A 2014 judgment by former Karnataka Special Court Judge John Michael Cunha lists these 11 properties as “disproportionate assets” of Jayalalithaa, her aide Sasikala and Sasikala’s relatives, Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran.

Also read: Why tranquil Kodanad is giving EPS sleepless nights

The 11 properties are estimated to be worth ₹100 crore.

Based on the 2014 judgment, the tax department has attached the properties under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, the sources said.

Tamil Nadu’s Land Registration Department has been informed and attachment notices have been put outside the properties, the sources added.

Also read: Jayalalithaa’s Kodanad estate: Grand British bungalow to ‘house of murders’

Sasikala, 67, was released earlier this year after serving a four-year jail term in a corruption case.

She took over as AIADMK chief soon after Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016. She made an abortive bid to take over the chief ministership when she was convicted for corruption by the Supreme Court in a case in which Jayalalithaa was also accused. Sasikala was also expelled from the party.

Ahead of the April-May assembly election, she had declared that she was “staying away from politics”.