Afew hours after DMK President MK Stalin condemned the IT raids at hisson-in-law’s premises, the DMK has complained to the Election Commission ofIndia (ECI) alleging unruly behavior by the tax officials and that they enteredSenthamarai's residence forcibly here today.
"Theincome tax department has been used as a sword and as a pawn in the hands ofthe ruling BJP party and there are no reasons as to why these searches arebeing conducted few days before the election date i.e. April 6”, DMK said inits complaint.
Sayingthat DMK has a huge fan following in Tamil Nadu and that opinion polls havefavoured DMK to form a government in the state, therefore, the BJP is usingcentral agencies to defame MK Stalin and other party leaders.
DMKsaid: "The overall sentiments of the people are in favour of the DMKcombine as for last 10 years there has been high rise of corruption and highrise of offences against women including sexual harassments at the workplaceincluding one incident by a top police official in the DGP rank."
Urgingthe ECI to intervene and direct the Income Tax department to refrain itselffrom abusing its power during elections, the DMK said the act of tax deparmentamounts to corrupt practice falling within the definition of Section 123(7) ofRepresentation of People Act.
Allegingthe tax officials under the garb of discharge of official duties are abusingtheir powers for the purpose of poll prospects of the AIADMK- BJP combine, DMKadded that all the officials involved in these operations will be named andtried accordingly in accordance with law.
"Furthertheir actions amounted to intimidating and defaming and therefore they will nothave any protection under the Act for their official discharge offunctions," the party added.
Thepolling for the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly is scheduled on April 6. Thecounting of votes will take place on May 2.