For the fifth consecutive day on Monday, the Income Tax department sleuths have been conducting searches in the residence of P Srinivas Rao, former personal secretary of Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
This is for the first time in the country that the Income Tax officials have raided the house of personal secretary of any former chief minister, though there was instances of I-T searches on the CM’s residences in the past.
What is more interesting is that the I-T officials came from Delhi directly, and with a team from the Central Reserve Police Force, to conduct the raids at the residence of Srinivas Rao both in Hyderabad and Vijayawada.
The local police have been kept at bay and the media persons are not being allowed anywhere near the house. Nobody knows what the I-T officials are searching for and what they have found so far.
The media persons could only notice the officials loading several documents in their vehicles.
The speculation is that the documents are pertained to the ill-gotten wealth worth crores of rupees, which are in disproportionate to his known sources of income.
It is not known whether the I-T officials are suspecting him to be the benami of Chandrababu Naidu or somebody else and questioning him on the suspicion.
Srinivas, who served as the personal secretary of Naidu when he was the opposition leader between 2004 and 2014, continued as Naidu’s PS after he became the chief minister.
However, soon after Naidu lost his power, Srinivas returned to his parent department – Commercial Taxes.
If Srinivas resorted to any corrupt practices in the department, he would have been targeted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau and there is no need for the I-T department sleuths from Delhi to target him.
Moreover, he would not have amassed so much wealth that necessitated the I-T officials to raid continuously for five days.
So, there is definitely something fishy about Srinivas. Let us wait and watch!
