IT raids politically motivated: Vijayakanth

Chennai, Jan 25 (UNI) Actor politician and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) Founder President Vijayakanth, MLA, today reiterated that the Income Tax raids on premises belonging to him and his relatives were 'purely politically motivated'.

Addressing a crowded press conference here, the DMDK Chief claimed the raids were held at the behest of DMK President and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi who could not tolerate the growing popularity of his party.

In fact, Mr Karunanidhi was making all out efforts to destroy the DMDK as it had a large number of youth as its members.

Stating he would not be cowed down by such threats, Mr Vijayakanth said the Chief Minister would never succeed in his attempts.

''If there was no political vendetta behind the raids, why should Union Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam come to the press hurriedly and state there was no motive behind the raids,'' he asked.

He also took strong exception to the reported details of the total seizure during the raids and asked the officials concerned why they had allegedly concealed the fact he had obtained a bank loan of Rs 7.5 crore from the public sector Indian Overseas Bank for his self-financing engineering college.

The DMDK Chief also denied the Income Tax Department's claim that he and his wife had not paid Wealth Tax for the last five assessment years and said they had already paid the tax and the entire details were with his auditor.

UNI