Kushalnagar, Apr. 28 – The Income Tax (I-T) sleuths continued their searches at Sri Lakshmi Narayana Group, popularly known as SLN Group, here  this morning and it is the third day of the raids. The Group, headquartered in Kushalnagar, Somwarpet taluk in Kodagu district, is owned by Vishwanathan and Sathappan, who are its Managing Directors.

It may be recalled here that teams from I-T Department began the raid on Wednesday (Apr. 26) and they had arrived at Kushalnagar posing as a wedding party, just to misguide the local people and also the Police officers about the raids.

The I-T sleuths, who have camped at Kushalnagar, intensified the search after visiting each and every business firm owned by the Group and collected documents. The raiding team is led by Assistant Director, Income Tax Sapna Kumar Chakraborty and I-T Inspector Sampath Kumar.

The team visited Coffee Purification Unit at Koodlur Industrial Area, Coffee Curing Works and Purple Farms Resort at Bollur and Eden Garden Layout at Teppadagandi among other places and collected crucial documents and records. According to sources, the investigators have frozen some of the bank accounts operated by the Group in Kushalnagar.

All the telephone lines to the houses and properties have been disconnected and Vishwanathan and Sathappan have been told not to leave the town.

Sources said that Vishwanathan and Sathappan are related to former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and the raids were a part of the continued operation carried out by the IT sleuths against Chidambaram and his son Karti since 2015.

To ensure that nothing goes wrong in the operation, the members of the I-T search teams were changed frequently and senior officials closely monitored the operations. Over 50 Police personnel from Mysuru have escorted the I-T team.