The Income Tax (I-T) department has been conducting raids in the offices of the real estate company G Square Realtors for the third day. The raids began on April 24 and at least 50 locations related to the firm have been raided in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The raids happened one week after Tamil Nadu's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Annamalai released 'DMK files' which contained details of the properties owned by various ministers, MLAs and family members of people in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Annamalsi had alleged that the revenue of G Square Relators increased manifold in 2019 owing to their links with the ruling party in Tamil Nadu.
On April 24, the searches began at 7 am in multiple offices of the company located in Chennai, Coimbatore and Bengaluru, as well as at the residence of the company owner Ramajayam alias Bala. Apart from that, a chartered accountant from Anna Nagar and another close associate of the company had also come under the I-T department’s scanner. Meanwhile, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers were also deployed outside the offices of the firm during the raids.
The real estate firm responded to the I-T raids on April 24 and said that they believe in transparency and have always been honest with their stakeholders. They added they have nothing to hide and have been cooperating with the authorities and hopeful that the “malicious propaganda” against them will come to an end. G Square also alleged that there has been “unwarranted persecution” against them on multiple fronts that were based on unfounded allegations.
G Square Realtors Private Limited has been accused of having strong ties with the DMK and its founder being a close friend of Chief Minister MK Stalin’s son-in-law Sabareesan. In 2021, just ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections, the company also came under I-T scanner along with Sabareesan. Prior to that, the company was raided in 2019.