IT raids on Revanth Reddy

​Hyderabad: In a day of high drama, Income-Tax department sleuths descended at the house of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee working president A Revanth Reddy and his relatives at the break of dawn in posh Banjara Hills area.

The IT sleuths conducted raids in about 15 places related to Revanth Reddy and his brothers triggering a war of words between the Congress and TRS. The Congress party alleges that it was pre-planned raid to demoralise the Congress leaders and cadre but the ruling party was equally vehement that it has nothing to do with the raids since Modi government was not their friend. Modi government did not do any special favours to Telangana, according to Nizamabad MP K Kavitha.

Revanth and his family members were not at home when the raids began. He was at Kodangal in Mahbubnagar district to kick start his poll campaign on Thursday afternoon. He was in Kodangal on Wednesday after offering prayers at Tirumala. Revanth Reddy had planned to launch his election campaign from Thursday. Reddy is known as fire-brand leader of Telangana who is known for directly taking on KCR. Following the sudden development, Reddy had to cut short his plans of campaign and returned to Hyderabad. Speculations are rife that he would be arrested past midnight by Enforcement Directorate.

It is also being said that the A Venkat Reddy, brother of Revanth Reddy and his his wife A Vani have been taken into custody by police around 3 pm. However there has been no official confirmation about it. The main focus of the raids was on the infrastructure company named Bhupal Infrastructure Pvt Ltd which belongs to Revanth Reddy's brother. The company is into several irrigation and road construction projects in Telangana. The Income-Tax officials are probing alleged mismanagement of accounts of the company and unaccounted money transactions done by the firm, sources said.

It is learnt that the officials were also investigating into the cash-for-vote scam in which Revanth was facing charges. On May 31, 2015, Revanth was caught by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) while allegedly paying a bribe of Rs 50 lakh to Elvis Stephenson, a nominated MLA to vote in favour of TDP in the council elections. The officials said that cases under FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) and PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) are being registered against the Congress leader based on the evidences available after grilling the leader.

The raids have raked up a political controversy as the state is heading towards early elections. Earlier, Congress state unit president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the party leaders and cadre should be ready to face more arrests and action by Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate and CBI officials. He said that these raids would be conducted owing to a tacit understanding between the TRS government of Telangana and the Narendera Modi government at the Centre. The party leaders would not bow down to TRS-BJP's arm-twisting tactics, he added.

Reacting to the IT raids, Revanth Reddy on Facebook alleged that the raids against him was part of political witch hunt orchestrated by the BJP and TRS. He said the ED and IT raids should be conducted on the Jay Shah and K T Rama Rao, sons of Amit Shah and caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao respectively who have amassed thousands of crores of rupees.

Reacting to the allegations that the raids were orchestrated by BJP, party spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao said that they were figment of imagination of the Congress. Referring to the note for vote scam, where Revanth in the past was caught bribing TRS MLA, Krishna Saagar Rao said Revanth was not an innocent bystander. In fact, Congress owes an explanation on why they inducted him into their party and made him working president knowing his wrongdoings, he said.