The Income Tax department on Wednesday asked the Chennai Police to register a criminal case against three All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders and the special representative of the Tamil Nadu government in New Delhi for allegedly obstructing its raids at state Health Minister C Vijayabaskar’s residence. They submitted a complaint to City Police Commissioner Karan Singha who later forwarded it to Additional Commissioner of Police (south zone) K Shankar, reported The Times of India.

Ministers R Kamaraj, Udumalai K Radhakrishnan and Kadambur Raju and government’s special representative N Thalavai Sundaram have been accused of harassment and criminal intimidation, according to India Today. During the raid on April 7, these AIADMK members had created a ruckus outside Vijayabaskar’s residence, and later barged into the house when I-T officials were carrying out their search. They even managed to flee with a few papers. The complaint also mentions Vijayabaskar’s driver who is accused of threatening I-T officials, reported The Times of India.

Following the raids, the Election Commission had cancelled the RK Nagar bye-polls that were scheduled for April 12. There were allegations of parties bribing the electorate. On April 8, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had submitted its report to the EC in Delhi, alleging that the VK Sasikala camp of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had kept aside nearly Rs 90 crore to be distributed among voters to gain support for their candidate TTV Dinakaran.

Campaigning for the bye-election to the RK Nagar seat has been intense as this constituency was earlier held by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Both Sasikala’s AIADMK faction and the O Panneerselvam camp have accused each other of buying votes.