A set of old and unrelated photos showing stacks of cash and gold is being shared with the false claim that they are from the recent Income Tax department raids on Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader MK Stalin's daughter's residence on April 2, 2021.
This is being shared in the backdrop of the income tax raids at DMK leaders including DMK chief MK Stalin's daughter Senthamarai's hourse. Of the 28 premises searched, four belonged to Senthamarai and her husband Sabareesan reported The New Indian Express. Tamil Nadu is set to vote on April 6, 2021 for the state assembly election.
The caption when translated from Tamil reads, "A part of the money seized during the raid conducted by the Income Tax Department at the house of DMK leader Stalin's daughter Senthamarai Sabareesan!!!"
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(In Tamil - திமுக தலைவர் ஸ்டாலின் மகள் செந்தாமரை சபரீசன் வீட்டில் , வருமானவரித்துறை நடத்திய சோதனையின்போது கைப்பற்றப்பட்ட பணத்தின் ஒரு பகுதி ! இது பள்ளி நடத்தியதில் வந்ததுனு உருட்டாதீங்க ...)
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BOOM also received the viral photos on its WhatsApp helpline number (7700906111).
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral photos of cash and gold that are being circulated are from previous raids and seizures by the Income Tax Department in other unrelated cases.
The Income Tax Department found ₹ 1.36 lakh in cash after a day-long raid of the Chennai residence of DMK chief MK Stalin's daughter and son-in-law NDTV reported on April 3, 2021; it further stated that no other seizure was made during raids at a total of four locations in the state quoting sources. The cash has been returned to the assesses, the sources said, after family members produced documents accounting for the money they said was for household purposes, further reported NDTV.
Image 1
BOOM found that this photo is from Telangana's Khammam after Telangana Police had nabbed a gang of five men and seized fake Indian currency notes worth more than Rs 6 crore on November 2, 2019.
We found news reports with the viral photo and also an ANI tweet dated November 2, 2019, on the raid.
Image 2 and 3
On performing a reverse image search we found that the photos are from Income Tax sleuths on March 29, 2019. PTI had reported that cash found was believed to be worth crores concealed in a cement godown belonging to an associate of a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader in Vellore district, Tamil Nadu.
Image 4
BOOM found that this photo is from MK Stalin's daughter Senthamarai Stalin's residence during a raid by Income Tax raid on April 2, 2021. We found similar photos from the same spot reporting on the raid.
News report on the incident
We can spot the same visuals in this news report at the 12 seconds timestamp,
Image 5 and 6
BOOM found that these viral photos of gold and cash are from a raid which was found during a search conducted in July 2018 at a private company called SPK Company in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The Income Tax (IT) department had seized Rs 163-crore cash and about 100-kg bullion, following raids at multiple premises of a road construction firm in Tamil Nadu reported Outlook on July 17, 2018.
Image 7
We found that this photo of cash and jewellery is from December 2016 during Income Tax department raids at premises in Karnataka and Goa, apparently targeting casino operators, hawala traders and cricket bettors reported Deccan Herald on December 11, 2016.
News report on the incident
Image 8
BOOM found news reports which had carried this inventory of cash seized receipt which names DMK Stalin's son-in-law Sabarisan Yedamurthy. BOOM could not independently verify the document
The Indian Express Tamil news report
Read here
We can spot the same receipt at the 1.36 timestamp in this NDTV report on the raid.