Vijayawada: Under fire from rival political parties, especially the ruling YSRC, in the aftermath of income tax raids on P. Srinivas, former personal secretary of Telugu Desam supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Telugu Desam has produced the panchanama report of the Income Tax department, showing possession of cash of Rs 2.63 lakh and a few tolas of gold on his premises.
The Income-Tax department official press release on Friday said stated that the preliminary investigation from raids on three infrastructure companies, and a former personal secretary of a prominent person (Mr Naidu), combined, revealed siphoning of Rs 2,000 crore. The ruling YSR Congress launched a scathing attack alleging that it was Mr Naidu who primarily benefited out of the siphoned money.
The two panchanama reports purported to have been issued by the IT department to Mr Srinivas started doing rounds on social media since Sunday morning.
Taking a cue from these, former minister and senior TD leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu demanded that the ruling party and media outlets belonging to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy should apologise to Mr Naidu for spreading false news.
Ramakrishnudu told mediapersons that YSRC party leader and media house owned by CM Reddy magnified I-T raids on the former PS. They propagated that Rs 2,000 crore was seized in cash when I-T sleuths actually only found only Rs 2 lakh whereas the projected money was routed through 26 bogus companies.
“It would be better if they change their party’s name to Liar Congress,” Mr Ramakrishnudu said, adding that the party was considering proceeding against the YSRC party leaders and media house legally. Meanwhile, the appearance of panchanama report on social media and TD picking it up as a basis to defend Mr Naidu raised many an eyebrow. The former personal secretary to former chief minister Naidu is a state government employee, who is currently posted in the planning department.
