I-T raids on TDP MP Ramesh's properties in Hyd, Kadapa

Around 60 officers from the Income Tax department carried out raids at the residence and offices of C M Ramesh, Telugu Desam Party MP and close aide of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, on Friday morning.

Around 8 am, 15 officers knocked on the door of Ramesh’s residence in Potladurthi village of Erraguntla block of Kadapa and asked his brother Suresh to stay outside. “They have begun searching all rooms even after I said that my brother is away in New Delhi,” Suresh said. The raids were simultaneously conducted at Ramesh's residence and also his office "Rithwik” in Jubilee Hills.

“The I-T raids are a part of the BJP's strategy to intimidate TDP leaders who are fighting against the injustice meted out to Andhra Pradesh. Today is the last date of the deadline I set out for the Narendra Modi government to declare Kadapa steel factory. This is what I get in return,” Ramesh told television channels in Delhi.

Interestingly, Ramesh demanded the I-T department to conduct searches in open so that everyone can see. “My accounts are clear and I am an upright citizen, there is nothing to hide,” he added.

State IT minister Nara Lokesh said in Amaravati that the raids on TDP leaders are nothing but a conspiracy by the BJP to terrorise those opposing Modi.

“It is a part of 'Operation Garuda' to dislodge the Andhra Pradesh government,” Lokesh said. It is very clear that the BJP-YSRCP-Janasena combine are trying to trouble TDP which stood firmly against the Modi regime, Lokesh added.

The TDP’s fears are not unfounded as on September 27, the I-T department raided Telangana Congress leader A Revanth Reddy's house in Hyderabad.

Reddy is a former TDP MLA from Kodangal. Last week, there were raids on Municipal Minister P Narayana’s educational institutions, which the minister denied and then on former TDP MLA from Nellore Beeda Mastan Rao.