Jayadev Galla, the Telugu Desam Party MP and the richest candidate in the Lok Sabha elections, has accused the Narendra Modi government of targeting him for political reasons after sleuths of the Income Tax Department conducted raids on Tuesday evening on the chief accountant of a company owned by him.

“This is nothing short of fascism and it smacks of emergency like situation. Modi is trying to influence the elections by selectively targeting the TDP leaders in Andhra Pradesh,” Galla alleged.

Tax officials carried out searches on the residence of Gurrappa Naidu, chief accountant working with the Amara Raja Batteries, a company owned by Jayadev Galla, the TDP MP from Guntur. He is the richest candidate in the Lok Sabha polls with declared assets of Rs 683 crore.

According to a TDP leader familiar with the development, the Income Tax department authorities conducted the raids in Guntur town at around 6 pm. Naidu was questioned and reportedly detained for six hours. He was allegedly taken to an undisclosed location by the tax officials for questioning.

Galla tried to contact Naidu but his phone remained switched off. Immediately, the MP rushed to the chief accountant’s house and found it locked. Agitated over the development, the TDP leader, accompanied by hundreds of party workers and followers, went to the office of district collector to stage protest. Later, he headed to the local police station to lodge a complaint.

He staged a dharna at Pattabhiram junction in Guntur to protest the alleged detention of his company official. The TDP workers raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of indulging in witch-hunt of the political rivals.

Gall shot into limelight when he made a fiery speech against PM Modi during the no-confidence motion against the NDA government in Lok Sabha in July last year. His speech received wide appreciation on the social media.

Following protests, the income tax authorities released the chief accountant at around 11.30 pm. Unconfirmed reports said the authorities had confiscated unaccounted cash of Rs 30 lakh from Naidu.

First Published: Apr 10, 2019 10:20 IST