Telangana Congress Leader Appears Before Tax Department, Hints Conspiracy

Telangana Congress Working President A Revanth Reddy Wednesday appeared before the Income Tax department in Hyderabad and was questioned in connection with the searches conducted recently at his residence and offices.

Mr Reddy, who was quizzed by the I-T officials for several hours, later accused caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of misusing government agencies and said people of the state are observing this.

Mr Reddy said he had replied to the queries raised by the I-T officials and was asked to again appear before them on October 23, if required.

"I would like to tell KCR (as Rao is popularly known), you joined with (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and used Income Tax and the Enforcement Directorate as a tool to foist illegal cases...but you will not win the elections," he told reporters.

Income Tax sleuths had carried out searches last week at the residences and offices of Revanth Reddy and his close relatives and seized some "key documents".

They conducted searches at over a dozen offices and residences belonging to Mr Reddy and his relatives in different parts of the city.

They also swooped down on the residence of Sebastian Harry, an accused along with Mr Reddy in a case related to bribing a nominated MLA to seek vote in favour of a Telugu Desam nominee in the Legislative Council elections in June 2015, in which Simha is also an accused.

On May 31, 2015, Revanth Reddy, then in the Telugu Desam Party, was caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau while allegedly paying a bribe of Rs 50 lakh to Elvis Stephenson, a nominated MLA, for supporting TDP nominee Vem Narendar Reddy in Legislative Council elections held on June 1, 2015.

Later all the accused were granted bail. Another accused in the cash-for-vote case and Mr Reddy's aide R Uday Simha also appeared before the I-T department.

The Congress had condemned the raids and termed it as "political vendetta" by the ruling TRS in the state and the BJP at the Centre, a claim denied by both TRS and BJP.