Multi-Agency Crackdown on Jaffer Sadiq: Income Tax Searches Follow Drug Smuggling Probe

The Income Tax Department is carrying out a search operation in fifteen locations in Chennai and Puducherry in connection with ostracised DMK functionary Jaffer Sadiq. Sadiq was apprehended by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in 2024 on allegations that he was involved in smuggling pseudoephedrine drugs abroad.

As per the officials of the income tax department, the searches linked to him are ongoing as a result of the new information received by them in relation to the large-scale tax evasion. The Enforcement Directorate has already been investigating cases concerning money laundering by registering a separate complaint (ECIR) against them. These new actions by the Income Tax Department are important because they are taking place while the model code of conduct is in effect.

Approximately 100 officials of the Income Tax Department are presently involved in conducting searches at these 15 locations, including Egmore, Kilpauk, Anna Salai, Purasawalkam, and Puducherry in the city. The tax officials asserted that, despite most of the search locations they are presently investigating having already been covered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the locations are still under the scanner of the income tax department, as fresh evidence related to tax evasion has been received by them.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) recently exposed a godown in Delhi (in January 2024), where they found packets of pseudoephedrine disguised as cocoa powder. They were kept there for export to foreign countries like Australia and New Zealand. Jaffer Sadid is the key accused who orchestrated all this smuggling. The NCB became aware of the same; he was subsequently arrested in March 2024. Further investigation in connection with the case is still ongoing.