The Income Tax department has provisionally attached properties belonging to Tamil Nadu Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar. “We have frozen some of his properties in Pudukkottai district. This includes land (around 100 acres) and a stone quarry,” said a senior Income Tax official who wished anonymity. He added that the I-T department has directed the sub-registrar office to freeze these properties.

It may be recalled that in April this year, tax officials had searched the offices and premises belonging to the Minister, his relatives and close aides. Several papers with signatures of people (confidants) who received money for distribution to the voters of the R.K. Nagar Assembly constituency were recovered. The election was later called off.

After the raids, the I-T officials also claimed that Mr. Vijaya Baskar was a silent partner in sand baron Sekhar Reddy’s firm SRS Mining. The officials alleged that details pertaining to his partnership were not shown in books and could be taxed.

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms and Tamil Nadu Election Watch, Mr. Vijaya Baskar was among the top six candidates with an annual income of over ₹2 crore (self + spouse + dependents), going by the income-tax returns. He had declared an annual income of ₹3 crore.

Mr. Vijaya Baskar won for the second consecutive time from the Viralimalai constituency in 2016, defeating M. Palaniappan, the DMK candidate. His victory margin of 39,303 votes was the highest in the district. In 2011, he defeated former Union Minister of State for Health S. Reghupathy.