IT dept raids premises of T'gana Cong leader

Hyderabad: The Income Tax Department on Thursday conducted searches at the residences of Telangana Congress Working president A Revanth Reddy here and at Kodangal in Vikarabad district.

According to sources, searches were also conducted at the residence of Sebastian Harry who was an accused along with Revanth 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.

The Congress party condemned the raids and termed it as "political vendetta" by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi in the state and the BJP at the centre, but both the TRS and BJP denied the charge and said they had nothing to do with the I-T Department's actions.

A senior official of the I-T Department said the raids were aimed at an infrastructure company belonging to Revanth Reddy's relatives.

Sources close to the development said searches were conducted at about a dozen places including those belonging to the relatives of the Congress leader at various locations in the city.

Revanth Reddy, who was appointed as one of the two Working Presidents of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee recently, had earlier said that he was being targeted by the ruling parties and subjected to harassment.

Jubilee Hills police inspector P Chandra Shekar said that they deployed police force near the Congress leader's residence "to avoid any untoward incident".

Revanth Reddy was away from home when the sleuths knocked at his Jubilee Hills residence. He was said to be touring his constituency kicking off the election campaign.

Describing the I-T searches as "politically motivated", TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the TRS and BJP were hand in glove.

"IT & ED raids at @INCTelangana Working President @revanthanumulas house is pure political vendetta to demoralise our strong MLAs. The people will teach KCR a lesson for being hand in glove with the BJP and the Central govt. I severely condemn these politically motivated raids," he tweeted.

On May 31, 2015, Revanth Reddy, then in Telugu Desam Party, was caught by 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.