Chennai: Income-Tax raids on Tamil Nadu chief secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao on Wednesday sent shock waves in the corridors of power across the country.
I-T officials swooped on his Anna Nagar bungalow in the early hours while another large batch of officials began the raid at his office at the Secretariat in the Fort St. George, even taking away his two personal assistants (PAs) for more quizzing in the evening.
Handpicked for the top job by the then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, who superseded 17 IAS officers to elevate the 1985 batch IAS officer to be the top babu, Rama Mohana Rao seemed to come off in poor light as significant seizures were made at the home of his kin — at least Rs 30 lakh cash and 5 kgs gold.
As many as 13 premises belonging to the chief secretary, his son in Tiruvanmiyur and relatives in Nellore and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh and in Karnataka were searched leading to more seizure of cash and gold across south India.
The raids, which began at the crack of dawn, at around 5.45 am, at Mr Rao’s residence in Anna Nagar and continued till late into the evening, appeared linked to the recent I-T raids and arrest of sand quarry dealer Sekhar Reddy and were conducted for suspected amassing of wealth disproportionate to the known sources of income and tax evasion.
Mr Rao suffers the ignominy of being the first chief secretary of a state to be raided by the income tax department.
Sources in I-T department said the raids on Mr Rao came after their interrogation of former TTD Board member Sekhar Reddy and seizure of Rs 131 crore cash and 177 kg gold from premises belonging to him two weeks back. DC had on December 9 reported that Mr Reddy was linked to a top bureaucrat at the Fort St George and that he was known to be his benami.
Mr Rao’s office at the state secretariat, the seat of power of the Tamil Nadu Government, was also not spared as I-T sleuths raided his chamber for close to five hours. Later, two of his personal assistants at his office – Sekar and Kumar — were taken for questioning.
Income tax officials were tight lipped about the seizure during the raids at Mr Rao’s residences, though sources said that Rs 30 lakh cash and gold 5 kg were seized from one of his relative’s house. “We were not expecting big seizure from his premises. But the searches were conducted based on documents and statements from Sekhar Reddy. Searches were the natural procedure we have to follow. These kinds of searches will help us to build up the case,” an income tax official said.
