I-T raids on minister’s colleges raise TDP’s hackles in Andhra Pradesh

Officials of the income tax (I-T) department conducted raids on educational institutes owned by high-profile minister P Narayana in the Telugu Desam Party government, business firms owned by a lawmaker, a former lawmaker and several other industrial and realty establishments in Andhra Pradesh in the last two days.

Minister for municipal administration Narayana, a close aide of chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, was quick to deny reports of raids on his educational institutes.

According to sources, the teams inspected records in the administrative office of the Narayana Group of Colleges in Vijayawada’s Auto Nagar area and verified attendance registers of students in one of its branches in Kanuru on the city’s outskirts belonging to the minister.

Former TDP legislator in Nellore district Beeda Mastan Rao’s aqua feed and seed firms in Chennai and Nellore districts were searched by the I-T department on Thursday. He is a close follower of Narayana.

The I-T teams also conducted searches on the premises of Southern Granites and Southern Sea Foods owned by lawmaker Pothula Rama Rao from Prakasam district, who defected from the YSR Congress.

Around 50 members in seven teams from Delhi and Hyderabad are participating in the raids with the assistance of local police. One of the officials involved in the searches told television news channels that a clear picture will emerge by Friday evening, refusing to divulge further details.

The raids carried out on business establishments having connections with the ruling party, an estranged ally of the NDA government at the Centre, ahead of elections scheduled to be held next year obviously received political overtones.

The ruling party’s leaders, including the minister, were quick to link the current I-T raids in Andhra Pradesh with those on the firms owned by Telangana Congress working president A Revanth Reddy and blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for unleashing what they called a reign of terror against opposition parties.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao denied the charges, saying the searches by the I-T department were part of their routine duty.

First Published: Oct 05, 2018 16:13 IST