Daijiworld Media Network - Madikeri (SP)

Madikeri, Apr 27: Officials of income tax (IT) department conducted simultaneous raids on 11 branches of prestigious SLN Group of Kushalnagar in Kodagu district on Wednesday April 26. The group is owned by Vishwanathan and Sathappan, children of former union finance minister, P Chidambaram's sister. It is gathered that during the raid, the officials gained access to certain documents.

The raids were conducted with the support of police from Mysuru district. The officials came in decorated cars which looked like vehicles belonging to a marriage party. The places raided included coffee curing unit in industrial area, offices of instant coffee units, timber yard on Mangaluru road, petrol bunk, luxury hotel named Purple View and residences of Vishwanathan and Sathappan. The units located at Polibetta in Kodagu and Chettinad in Tamil Nadu were among the places raided. The officials were seated in over 50 vehicles. Each of the 11 raiding teams comprised of around 15 officials.

The officials continued to verify documents since morning till evening. During the raid, petrol bunk and coffee curing unit in Kudlur industrial area were ordered to be closed for operations. It is gathered that Vishwanathan and Sathappan were about to leave their residences to offices at around 8 am when IT officials confronted them at their residences. It is being assumed that the raids were conducted on the basis of findings of the IT officials during the recent raid on the house of Chidambaram's son, Karthi.

Interestingly the Innova car that was ahead of other vehicle was elaborately decorated with flowers and bore the words, Dheeraj and Kajal, while some other vehicles were decorated with bouquets to look like people participating in a marriage function. The officials succeeded to keep the raid a secret till the last minute.