Three public representatives of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) came under the scanner of the Income Tax department as the residences and offices of Medak Member of Parliament Kotha Prabhakar Reddy; Bhongir MLA Pailla Shekhar Reddy and Nagarkurnool MLA Marri Janardhan Reddy were searched by several teams since Wednesday morning.
In an early morning swoop, about 70 teams of the I-T department along with central security forces landed at the residences and offices of the three prominent BRS leaders to search for alleged tax evasion and illegal cash transactions in their businesses. The raids were also conducted in Bengaluru and other places in Telangana apart from Hyderabad, sources said.
Mr. Prabhakar Reddy is into the transport business and also has interests in real estate, while Mr. Shekhar Reddy is a well-known builder in the city with several projects in Bengaluru as well. Mr. Marri Janardhan Reddy owns prominent apparel showrooms spread across Telangana apart from interests in real estate. The officials verified the details of their income sources, tax payments and documents of the real estate properties.
However, the raids took a political colour with the BRS Ministers accusing the BJP government is using the I-T department to damage the reputation of the MLAs and the MP. Power Minister Jagadish Reddy termed the raids as unwarranted and said their businesses were like an open book and they had nothing to hide. He said the only intention was to harass the BRS leaders.
Mr. Prabhakar Reddy responded to the raids terming them as ‘politically motivated.’ He said his family members cooperated with the I-T teams in the search as they had nothing to hide. He said his company followed all the norms in tax payments. He also denied having any investments in foreign companies.
Supporters of the BRS leaders also staged protests at the places where I-T teams were searching. Mr. Shekar Reddy’s followers burnt the effigy of the BJP government at Bhongir, which is represented by Mr. Reddy in the Telangana Assembly.
