New Delhi: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Sunday accused Andhra Pradesh's ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) of falsely linking the detection of alleged unaccounted income of Rs 2,000 crore by the Income Tax (I-T) department during its raids in the state and elsewhere in the country to the party and its supremo and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
The accusation came as the TDP took to Twitter and made public the ''panchnama'' (seizure memo) for the I-T department's raids carried out at Naidu's former private secretary P Srinivasa Rao''s residence to say it clearly mentioned that Rs 2,63,000 was found and the said amount was given back to him after the source for the funds was proven.
An I-T department official said handing over a seizure memo to the individual concerned during searches is a routine procedure. The official also said the authenticity of the memo given to Rao is not in doubt, but added such documents are not supposed to be put in the public domain.
TDP Parliamentary party leader Jay Galla tweeted that the YSRCP was unable to find any evidence of corruption during the last five years when the TDP was in power, and accused it of falsely linking the "Rs 2,000 crore corruption" uncovered by the I-T department to the opposition party and Chandrababu Naidu.
Another Lok Sabha MP K Ram Mohan Naidu alleged that sections of media in Andhra Pradesh were trying to cover up corruption cases involving Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and diverting attention to “fake news” on TDP leaders when only "a few lakhs of rupees in cash" were found in the house of Srinivasa Rao.
There was no immediate reaction from the YSRCP to allegations levelled by the TDP, the main opposition party in Andhra Pradesh.
In an official release on Thursday, CBDT official spokesperson Surabhi Ahluwalia said the I-T Department carried out Search and Seizure on February 6 at Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Kadapa, Vishakapatnam, Delhi and Pune and that more than 40 premises were covered.
The search action included three prominent infrastructure groups based in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, it said
"The search operation was also carried out on close associates including ex-personal secretary of a prominent person and incriminating evidence seized," the release said.
The CBDT did not name anyone.
The release said investigations led to busting of a major racket of cash generation through bogus sub-contractors, over-invoicing and bogus billing.
Preliminary estimates suggested siphoning of more than Rs. 2,000 crore through transactions that were layered through multiple entities with the last in the chain being small entities with turnover less than Rs two crore to avoid maintenance of books of accounts and tax audits, the release added.
(PTI)
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