In a massive hunt for black money, the income tax department raided the house and office of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, the residence of his son Vivek and his in-laws in Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh and seized ₹30 lakh in new ₹2,000 notes, 5kg of gold and documents with specifics of undisclosed assets worth about ₹5 crore. The officials carried out the raids at 11 places on Wednesday.
At 5:30 am, a team of I-T officials reached Rao’s house in Anna Nagar. With the aim of keeping the operation secret, they sought help of paramilitary forces rather than calling the state police. The officials also carried our raids at the houses of Rao’s son in Thiruvanmiyur and daughter in Manapakkam.
At around 2:30 pm, the I-T team reached Rao’s office at the State Secretariat where the search continued for 5 hours. The other raids were continued till night.
A large chunk of cash and gold was seized from Vivek’s house and his in-laws’ residence in Chittoor apart from several cellphones, SIM cards and documents.
A senior I-T official told The Indian Express that the raids were related to the seizure of ₹132 crore cash and 177 kg gold from mining baron Sekhar Reddy. “Documents seized from Reddy’s premises were the major evidence, as they had details linked to Rao. It was a matter of ascertaining locations before launching the raid,” he said.
“Reddy had direct access to both Rao and a senior politician of the ruling party. We couldn’t raid the politician as we don’t have enough evidence to link him to the illegal transactions,” said another senior official.
Reddy was in frequent touch with Rao and the politician’s office, I-T officials added. Meanwhile, Reddy was detained by the CBI that joined the I-T probe into the source of new currency notes, on Wednesday. Reportedly, the CBI filed an FIR against Reddy, his kin K Srinivasulu, and Premkumar and an agent who allegedly exchanged old notes for gold bars. Both Reddy and Rao would be booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The CBI also launched an inquiry into RBI-Chennai and two top private banks. They are alleged to have helped Reddy to exchange notes after demonetisation was announced.
In the meantime, Opposition parties are demanding Rao’s resignation. However, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cited political motive behind the raid. “Earlier the principal secretary of @ArvindKejriwal was raided and harassed. Now I read TN chief secretary also raided… Why don’t they raid Amit Shah and others who are collecting money,” she said in a series of tweets.
