Officials of the Income Tax department reportedly conducted raids at the properties belonging to Congress leader Revanth Reddy in Hyderabad and across Telangana on Thursday morning. His house on Road Number 45 in Jubilee Hills and his properties in Kodangal in Mahbubnagar district are said to have been raided. Though officials are yet to speak to the media, the raids are expected to go on till Thursday evening.
While some media reports suggested that the raid was being conducted in connection with the cash-for-vote scam that Revanth was involved in, others stated that it was related to Bhupal Infrastructure Private Limited, a construction company owned by the politician’s family.
Revanth Reddy, who joined Congress after quitting the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 2017, was recently appointed as the working president of the party. He is often seen as a bitter critic of the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Incidentally, last week, speaking to reporters, Revanth had said that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was desperate to win and expressed his doubts that they would rake up his earlier cases, to ensure that he is brought down.
Responding to the development, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief Uttam Kumar Reddy said it was 'pure political vendetta'.
IT & ED raids at @INCTelangana Working President @revanth_anumula’s house is pure political vendetta to demoralise our strong MLAs. The people will teach KCR a lesson for being hand in glove with BJP and Central govt. I severely condemn these politically motivated raids.
— Uttam Kumar Reddy (@UttamTPCC) September 27, 2018
First it was @JaggaReddyT & now @revanth_anumula, this is a clear sign of KCR’s cowardice. He has no capacity to take on any of our leaders & hence resorts to these backdoor moves. @INCTelangana will be united in its fight to rid Telangana soon of his autocratic & whimsical rule.
— Uttam Kumar Reddy (@UttamTPCC) September 27, 2018
The raids also come a day after the TRS welcomed several defectors from the TDP and Congress in Kodangal, which is Revanth's constituency, at an event in Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Caretaker Irrigation Minister Harish Rao, who was present at the event, said that the TRS should work hard to overthrow Revanth.
Cash for vote scam
Revanth Reddy was caught red-handed by the ACB on May 31, 2015, while he was offering Rs 50 lakh to Independent MLA Stephenson to make him vote for the TDP-BJP candidate in the elections to the Telangana legislative council.
ACB, which had laid a trap on a complaint by Stephenson, also arrested Revanth Reddy's aides. TRS leaders have been alleging that TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is the mastermind in the scam and he should be booked.
The ACB had earlier said that there were 516 telephone conversation records in the phone of Sebastian, one of the aides arrested, of which 102 are related to the cash-for-vote case.
In May, KCR's decision to hold a review meeting on the controversial case had triggered a massive political row.
Revanth Reddy had held a press meet, where he told reporters, “Unable to digest opposition leaders pointing out his fault, KCR, on the orders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is playing this game. It is because of this that he called for the meeting and ensured that the newspapers and other media channels reported it.”
At the time, Revanth also said that he was neither afraid of Modi nor Kedi (KCR), adding that the Telangana Chief Minister was "simply triggering speculation so he can scare us, and save himself and ensure no opposition for 2019 elections."