Chennai: How CBI nails BCCI chief Srinivasan post Stalin row

, March 23: The Central Bureau of Investigation (

) during its continuous raids in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu on Friday, March 22 seized 11 cars belonging to N Srinivasan, the

chief and India Cements promoter.

According to sources, Mr Srinivasan had evaded paying tax on imported cars which have been seized during the raids.

However, the BCCI chief was not alone who faced the wrath of the investigative agency. Other well-known people, who have been raided in connection with the biggest car import scam in India, are - Chancellor of Sri Ramchandra Medical college, GK Shetty Ramanna, MGM Group of companies and Raja Shankar, the owner of JRA Towers group.

The scam is believed to have caused a loss of Rs 50 crore to the government's exchequer. The mastermind of the scam - Alex Joseph, who has evaded arrest, has also been raided.

According to sources, the raids so far have yielded 33 imported vehicles. The investigative agency officials claimed that more seizures would be unearthed in coming days. A number of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials have been accused of playing major roles in tax evasions.

The CBI earlier on Thursday had raided DMK leader MK Stalin's residence in the city. However, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram intervened into the matter and asked the investigative agency to call off their raid.

Criticising the CBI raid, the finance minister said, "In this case I have to say that I strongly disapprove of the action. This action will be misunderstood."

It is believed that with the CBI raid, the Congress had tried to take revenge on DMK which has broken its alliance with UPA government over US resolution against Sri Lanka regarding atrocities on Tamils.

"One can understand how the Congress government is working, how are they behaving. This is only political vendetta. Let the CBI do anything, we don't bother. One has to understand how the Congress has stooped down to this level," said DMK MP TR Baalu.

DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi also was quoted as saying, "I don't want to speculate if central ministers have said they were not aware of raids. Political vendetta happens not only in Centre, but state also."

OneIndia News