Income Tax department personnel on Thursday morning began searching the office of Jaya TV in Chennai for evidence of tax evasion. Twenty other premises connected to Jaya TV, including Dr Namadhu MGR office and Jazz Cinemas, are being raided after reports of alleged tax evasions.

The searches are connected to several high value deposits allegedly made and rerouted through different companies in the months after demonetisation, Income Tax officials in Chennai told Scroll.in. Moreover, the searches are connected to dubious investments, fund flow and fudging of accounts, PTI quoted unidentified Income Tax officials as saying.

“Yes, the search is on,” an unidentified official told The Hindu. “This is a part of our operation called clean money.”

Sasikala’s nephew and ousted AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran said, “If the Centre thinks they can destroy us by conducting such raids, [then] they are dreaming,” according to ANI.

The company is owned by jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala (pictured above). It was founded by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 1999. Sasikala’s nephew Vivek Jayaraman currently runs the media house, which began as a mouthpiece of the political party. Jayaraman is the son of Ilavarasi who is serving a jail term along with Sasikala.

Residences of Jayaraman, his sister’s house in Chennai’s T Nagar locality and the Bengaluru residence of the AIADMK’s Karnataka unit head, Pugazhenthi, were also being raided.

In August, the merged factions of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam passed a resolution to start the legal procedures to retrieve and attack party mouthpieces, Jaya TV and Namadhu MGR, the news website reported.

A list of the places raided

Here are a list of places that were raided by the Income Tax officials on Thursday morning, according to Jaya TV.

1) Jaya TV office, Ekkattuthangal
2) Jazz Cinemas office, Ekkattuthangal and also inside Phoenix Mall
3) Jaya TV Managing Director Vivek Jayaraman’s home in Mahalingapuram
4) AIADMK spokesperson Pugazhendhi’s residence in Bengaluru
5) Sasikala’s brother V Dhivaharan’s home in Mannargudi
6) The residence of Dhivaharan’s assistant Vinayagam in Mannargudi
7) Dhivaharan’s friends, Sujay and Selvam’s residences, Mannargudi
8) Namadhu MGR office, Ekkattuthangal
9) Lawyer Velukarthikeyan residence in Thanjavur
10) Residence of Dhivarahan’s friend Vaduvur Agri Rajendran in Mannargudi
11) Sundaravadanam and late TV Mahadevan’s residences in Thanjavur
12) Kodanadu Estate
13) TTV Dinakaran’s residence
14) M Natarajan’s residence in Thanjavur
15) Tiruvarur District Secretary S Kamaraj’s residence

16) Amma Peravai Deputy Secretary Rajeshwaran’s residence