I-T recovered Rs 1.12 lakh cash, 50 sovereigns of gold: Rama Mohana Rao

Chennai: Former chief secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao on Tuesday claimed the I-T investigators found only Rs 1.12 lakh in cash and around 40 to 50 sovereigns of gold ornaments of his wife and daughter.

“No incriminating documents were recovered. At my room in Chief Secretary's office they only recovered my MRC (Madras Race Club) membership, which I don't use. Nothing else was recovered,” he said, releasing copies of the ‘Panchanamas’ issued by the I-T department as proof.

“They could find only Rs 1.12 lakh in cash, 40-50 sovereigns of gold ornaments that my wife and my daughter were wearing and they could find only around 25 kg of sliver articles that too idols of Lord Venkateswara, Mahalakshmi and Vinayagar,” he said, raising questions over why he was raided.

He also said apart from the MRC membership, papers relating to vigilance inquiries against ministers, IAS and IPS officers and some petitions that he had received from various people in his capacity as chief secretary were recovered from his chamber in the Secretariat.

He also sought to know why he was not transferred to some other position before he was raided. “If the Government (of India) did not want me as chief secretary, the home minister or someone could have called the hon'ble chief minister and told him to transfer me.

“How much time does it take for the chief minister to transfer me? Just two minutes. Home minister of the country could have spoken to the Chief Minister and could have told that we do not want the chief secretary who is a terrorist, extremist, smuggler and we don't want the chief secretary,” he said.

We went by rule book: I-T official

Hours after former chief secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao in a press meet, termed income tax raids on his house and at the chamber of CS at the state secretariat 'constitutional assault', senior income tax officers defended their last week operation and claimed that they had followed procedure during that time.

“If he believes that the action by income tax department was illegal, he could have gone to the court. Instead, he preferred to talk to the media. We don't know why it took so much time for him to talk to the media about the so called 'assault on constitution',” a senior income tax officer noted.

Searches at his house and CS's chamber at state secretariat were carried out after obtaining warrants. “We cannot leave out his office when we searched his house. And there was seizure of two mobile phones from his office besides a few documents,” an officer noted.

Reacting to the point that the raids were carried out at gunpoint, a senior income tax official said that paramilitary team had never entered the house but were waiting outside the building. “We can use police or central force on such occasions. The paramilitary men were there to protect the income tax officers who are conducting searches,” the officer added. They never entered the house.
Income tax officials also disclosed that they were not expecting any major seizure, particularly two weeks after they raided Sekhar Reddy, who is believed to be a benami of Rao.