Chennai: Former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer K.G. Arunraj—who served in the Income Tax department in Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Maharashtra—is all set to join actor-turned-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK).
A close aide of Arunraj confirmed to ThePrint that the former civil servant was already in discussions with Vijay about party activities and an announcement would be made soon.
“Of course, he is here to take up a senior position in the party and that will be announced by the party leader, Vijay, very soon,” the aide said.
Sources in the TVK told ThePrint that Arunraj is most likely to be given a post roughly equivalent to that of a general secretary.
Currently, N. Anand is the general secretary of Vijay’s TVK, and Lottery Martin’s son-in-law Aadhav Arjuna, who left the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and joined the TVK, is the general secretary for elections. While Anand takes care of the party’s functioning, Aadhav takes care of election work.
Arunraj, who belongs to Tamil Nadu’s Salem district, got an MBBS degree from the Madras Medical College and was practising in the rural areas, including Krishnagiri district, before he joined the IRS.
He cleared the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination in 2009. After serving in Tamil Nadu and Bihar, Arunraj took voluntary retirement and his resignation was accepted with immediate effect on 22 May this year.
“Ever since he became a doctor, he has always wanted to be in the administration field, and that’s why he chose the UPSC. However, his heart has always been in politics because that gives the ultimate power to serve the people,” a close friend of Arunraj told ThePrint.
Arunraj’s close aide told ThePrint that the former civil servant’s decision to join Vijay’s party was long in the making. “It was not a choice. He did not look for options. He had known Vijay for a long time and they had plans for a long time,” the aide said. “He feels there is a need for a change.”
“Although he pursued medicine, he was not keen on practicing medicine. He had long-term plans and public life was his plan.”
Sources close to Vijay told ThePrint that Arunraj became close to Vijay after Income Tax officials raided the actor’s houses and properties in connection with a tax evasion investigation.
I-T officials questioned Vijay in 2020 in connection with an alleged tax evasion case at a shooting spot in Neyveli in Cuddalore district. The inquiries briefly halted the shooting of his movie ‘Master’, directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj.
“Before the Neyveli raid, they did not have any connection. It was only after the raid, Arunraj became close to Vijay. In fact, when the party registration was getting delayed in the Election Commission, it was Arunraj, who guided the process for the team, even as he was in the service in Bihar,” a TVK insider told ThePrint.
Meanwhile, Vijay has hired JPACPersona founder Jhon Arokiasamy as his poll strategist. Arokiasamy successfully conducted Vijay’s first conference at Vikravandi in Villupuram and is now in charge of the party’s political strategy alongside Aadhav Arjuna.
Handled high-profile IT cases
Arunraj, who joined the I-T department in 2010, had a reputation for leading high-profile raids, including a 2016 raid that unearthed Rs 90 crore of cash – Rs 80 crore in demonetised currency and Rs 10 crore in new Rs 2,000 bills – from the premises of businessman Shekar Reddy and his associates Srinivasa Reddy and agent Prem. Apart from the cash, 100 kg of gold was also recovered.
After that, he was with the I-T investigation wing and handled many high-profile cases. In 2020, I-T officials raided actor Vijay’s home; subsequently, in 2021, the Election Commission (EC) transferred Arunraj, who was then the Joint Commissioner.
EC director Pankaj Srivastava sent a letter to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), saying that Arunraj must be attached with the CBDT headquarters immediately and a compliance report must be furnished the next day at 10 a.m.
The transfer came after the EC reviewed the assembly election preparedness in Tamil Nadu.
An IRS official in the I-T department told ThePrint it was a disciplinary action against the official. Arunraj’s close aide, who is privy to the developments, said that it was for the I-T department to answer.
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Push for transparency in civil services exam
Arunraj also made headlines for his efforts to bring transparency to the Civil Services Examination and understand its method of evaluation.
Although Arunraj had cleared the UPSC in 2009 and joined the service, he took the exam again in 2014. After the results were declared, he filed an RTI application in 2015 to find out if the Civil Services Main Examination answer papers involved a single evaluation or double evaluation system and whether the board members knew the community of interview candidates along with the average marks awarded in personality tests to candidates from the OBC/SC/ST and general categories.
Arunraj fought till July 2017, filing appeal after appeal, and finally the case reached the Central Information Commission, which disposed of the petition saying the requested information was not part of the record of public authorities and such information was not legally required to be maintained.
Since 2009, Arunraj has been expressing his views on corruption, prohibition, electoral reforms and caste through his blog, https://arunjispeaks.blogspot.com/.
In one of his blogs titled ‘Innovative Solution for a Better India’, he suggested a presidential form of government at the state level while retaining a parliamentary form at the centre to solve corruption issues.
“There is one thing which is the common denominator in all our woes, it is corruption. Corruption cannot be solved unless there is a strong push from the highest level—the political executive. Corruption begins with electoral malpractices and criminalisation of politics. It is this original sin that spills over into other areas—the bureaucrats and below,” he wrote in March 2011.
Arunraj also took a dig at the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), saying it “has innocuously bred laziness among the people”.
“It is a sad truth that presently no worthwhile work has come out of the rural employment scheme (except for some very rare cases)–one can see all the people sleeping or taking rest under the shades of trees,” he wrote in June 2015.
“Supporters of the scheme may argue that, in many places, substantive good work has come out of rural employment schemes. My argument is that it is at the cost of efficiency—what 10 people could have done in 10 days is done by 30 people in 30 days; secondly farmers are getting seriously affected.”
He also suggested linking the MGNREGS to agriculture to benefit the farmers.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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