Amid the income-tax raids on close aides of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, Prime Minister on Tuesday called him "Bhrasht Nath" and said if "scams" were surfacing the people behind them should also be brought into open.

"Bhrasht Nath could say anything, but it doesn't matter. Action needs to be taken on scams and corruption," Modi said referring to recent raids in Madhya Pradesh. "Scams were put in cold storage. We thought they should be probed. If the scams are surfacing, the people behind them should also brought forward," the Prime Minister said.

Income Tax officials continued to search on Tuesday, for the third day, premises of associates of Kamal Nath. They claimed to have unearthed details of transactions involving Rs 281 crore linked to businessmen, politicians and bureaucrats.

The officials were searching residences and offices of Ashwini Sharma, Manager of an NGO, his close aide Prateek Joshi, and Chief Minister's officer on special duty (OSD) Praveen Kakkar. Kakker was also interrogated till late Monday.

--IANS

bns/pgh/pcj

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)