Chennai: I-T department may have nailed him with audio recording of his conversation with Sekhar Reddy, but former chief secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao on Tuesday claimed he has no links with the sand don.
“I have no links with Sekhar Reddy. I have no business links (with him). I have thousands and thousands of friends in Tamil Nadu starting from Ramnad to everywhere. Many people come to me. I have nothing to do with me. He may have known to me,” Mr Rao told reporters here.
He was responding to a volley of questions about his links with the sand don.
“I have not held any positions through which I had favoured (him) and he has nothing to do with any government business. I have nothing to do with him (Sekhar Reddy). I have been in Tamil Nadu for 32 years and I have been working in different departments in both governments,” he said, denying any links with the former TTD member.
Asked about a newspaper (Deccan Chronicle) report that he called Mr Reddy on the day Jayalalithaa was laid to rest and asked him to safe keep the money, Mr Rao said many people had called him as he was the chief secretary.
“Many people called me. I am the Chief Secretary. Hundreds of people called (me) and hundreds of people gave (me) extraordinary information. I am the chief secretary and that is how I ran the state,” he said, evading a direct reply on whether he spoke to Mr Reddy.
“Did anyone see the evidence? Where is the proof?” he asked when sought to know about the audio recording, which the I-T department used to confront him in the midst of the raids.
Deccan Chronicle had on December 22 reported that Mr Rao waded into the I-T radar after he made a phone call to Mr Reddy on the day the late chief minister was laid to rest at Marina Beach. It also reported on December 26 how Mr Rao misused his official position to get contracts for companies owned by his son and his business partners.
The former top bureaucrat's claims seem to be unfounded since the I-T investigators stumbled upon a special sticker on Mr Reddy's car that allowed him to enter and exit the state secretariat without any hindrance.
