2 years after her death, why Jayalalithaa’s bank accounts are still under I-T scanner

CHENNAI: J Jayalalithaa is no more, but the former chief minister’s bank accounts and woes arising out of unpaid income tax are still alive and kicking.

Two days after the income tax department shocked the state by saying that Jayalalithaa’s famous Poes Garden house and three other properties had been under attachment since 2007 in lieu of her ₹16 crore tax arrears, it now turns out that her bank accounts continue to receive remittances.


“We have information about rental income received from commercial and residential assets, including the Kodanad estate, being deposited into her bank accounts every month, ” said a senior I-T official.

The tax arrears and liability arising out of the income from these assets are increasing since her death on December 5, 2016, as no one has come forward to take responsibility to clear the arrears and file tax returns.

“As per the Income Tax Act, after attaching four of her properties, we told the sub-registrars concerned not to deal with any of these assets. And unless her income tax arrears are cleared, the assets cannot be sold or leased out,” the official said.

Official: Bundles of papers in Jayalalithaa’s file mind-boggling

The senior I-T official said, “We, apart from informing the sub-registrars, sent several reminders to the former chief minister calling upon her to pay the arrears. But she did not take any step either to clear the arrears or release her assets from attachment. Bundles of papers in her file is mind-boggling. There are details about reminders, summons and they had gone forward and backward, but no action was taken to clear the arrears and release the assets”.

“It was in 2007 that we had to attach her immovable assets — Veda Nilayam, at Poes Garden; No 8, Ground Floor, Parsn Manor, Anna Salai; 213/B, St Mary’s Road, Mandaveli; and 8-3-1099, Plot No 36, Sri Nagar Colony, Yellareddyguda, Hyderabad — as the former CM failed to pay tax arrears for several years before 2007,” the official said.

Noting that the details presented in the Madras HC were based on records maintained by tax-recovering officer and that the department was firm on that, he said, “We only want a legal representative to file returns and to clear the arrears.”

Attachment of Jayalalithaa’s immovable assets surfaced in the high court, when a PIL filed by social activist K R ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy to restrain the Tamil Nadu government from converting her Poes Garden residence into a memorial, came up for hearing on Thursday.