Jaya TV raids: The people understand what is going on, says TTV Dinakaran

Income tax raids were conducted Thursday morning at the Jaya TV office in Chennai.

The Times of India reported that a team of 10 Income Tax officials entered the Jaya TV office at around 6 am.

Jaya TV, a prominentTV channel in Tamil Nadu, was started by former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

The channel is now controlled by VK Sasikala's family members, led by her nephew Vivek Jayaraman.

The channel had been critical of the current Tamil Nadu government, the TOI reported.

Current chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam had earlier been at loggerheads.

A search was also conducted at Jayaraman's residence in the city and at Jazz Cinemas owned by Sasikala's family members.

The searches were conducted after the department received information about the concealment of income and tax evasion, TOI reported.

"People are watching everything, they understand what is going on," Sasikala's nephew TTV Dinakaran said of the raids.

"If the Centre thinks they can destroy us by conducting such raids, they are day-dreaming," he added.

ANI reported that raids were also conducted on the Tamil newspaper Dr Namadhu MGR in Chennai and Karnataka AIADMK in-chargePugazhendi's house in Bengaluru.