Hyderabad:
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Rajya Sabha member CM Ramesh's offices and houses in Hyderabad and Kadapa were raided by Income Tax officials on Friday morning, news agency ANI reported. CM Ramesh is the promoter of Rithwik Projects Pvt. Ltd. Raid were also held at his partners' premises. The firm is said to have a turnover of close to Rs 1,000 crore. As many as 100 Income Tax officials raided several premises of the lawmaker and his associates.
Ramesh's residence in his native village Yerraguntala in Kadapa district, his Jubilee Hills residence and his business firm Ritwik Projects' office in Hyderabad were simultaneously raided by a team comprising 10 income Tax sleuths.
"Searches are being conducted at residences of Mr Ramesh in Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh. I-T officials are also verifying records at his residence and office in Hyderabad also. It is a routine one. No significance is attached to this," the sources in the I-T department told PTI.
The MP termed the raids as a “political vendetta”.
A clear-cut case of political vendetta, Centre has been targeting our leaders from last 15 days. The same thing happened in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal and now Andhra Pradesh, whoever is opposing them is being targeted: TDP MP CM Ramesh on IT raids on his close relatives pic.twitter.com/mA434ve7yT
— ANI (@ANI) October 12, 2018
Condemning the raids, the TDP said it was "pure political vendetta" as Ramesh had been vociferously fighting for the state's causes in Parliament.
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"This is an attack on the Andhra people. The Modi government has been adopting a vengeful attitude as we have been demanding that all promises made for AP be fulfilled," Information Technology Minister N Lokesh charged in a tweet.
The raids were aimed at preventing flow of investments into the state by scaring away industrialists, he alleged.
