CHENNAI : The raids by the officials of the Income-Tax department at the residence of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, which lasted nearly 24 hours, ended early this morning.
The unprecedented and large scale raids, which began at 0530 hrs yesterday morning at Mr Rao’s West Annanagar residence and later at his office at the State Secretariat premises, ended at around 0500 hrs this morning.
However, the raids at the business premises of Mr Rao’s son in the city were still continuing.
IT sources said during the simultaneous raids conducted at the premises of Mr Rao, his son Vivek Papisetty and other family members, Rs 30 lakh cash in new currency and five kg of gold were reported to have been seized by the officials
Besides several incriminating documents and ‘undisclosed income’ to the tune of Rs five crore were seized from his son’s residence at Thiruvanmiyur in the city.
The raids were conducted at 13 places, including at Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh and in Bengaluru.
This was for the first time in Tamil Nadu the residence of a Chief Secretary and his office at the State Secretariat were raided by the IT department.
IT department sources said the searches were being conducted based on the documents seized and evidences gathered from the residential and office premises of sand mining baron, businessman and contractor Sekhar Reddy, who was involved in execution various projects for the PWD and highways departments, and his two associates Srinivasulu Reddy and Premkumar.
The raid were conducted a day after IT and Enforcement Directorate officials registered cases against Sekhar Reddy and Srinivasulu Reddy from whom Rs 131 crore cash, including Rs 34 crore in new Rs 2,000 currency, and 177 kg gold and property documents worth several crores, were seized on December eight.
In a connected development the CBI last evening arrested Sekhar Reddy and Srinivasuly Reddy in connection with the seizure of cash and gold and remanded them in judicial custody till January three.
The duo were late lodged in Puzhal Central prison. (AGENCIES)
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