The Income Tax Department has claimed that it had unearthed Rs 60 crore of unaccounted income from Raghava Construction group, which is associated with TRS MP from Khammam, Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy.
The Income Tax department carried out a search at Srinivasa’s residence and offices at 16 places including Hyderabad, Ongole, Khammam, Guntur and Vijayawada on September 18, which continued for four days, according to reports.
The officials said the department has found tax evasion by the firm on at least three counts by allegedly processing ‘bogus sale bills’ and letting of ‘sub-contracts to purported fictitious accounts.’
Both Srinivasa’s wife and son are the directors of the company, while Reddy’s brother Prasad Reddy is the company’s Managing Partner. While the MP has denied any wrongdoing, his brother had reportedly recorded a statement and admitted that the amount was unaccounted for, according to PTI.
Srinivasa Reddy told TOI, “All our income are tax paid. The documents seized by the I-T department are still under examination and if it finds any inaccuracies, we are ready to pay taxes as applicable.”
Contrary to his claim, a senior official reportedly told PTI, "The undisclosed income detected in this case is for various assessment years and the firm has assured it will soon pay the due tax."
Reddy was elected as the MP from the YSRCP in 2014 but later joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, claiming that YSRCP was anti-Telangana.
Srinivasa played an important role in gathering a large number of people for the TRS’ ‘Pragati Nivedana Sabha’, held at the outskirts of Hyderabad before the Telangana Assembly was dissolved. In fact, he had personally flagged off 20,000 farmers from Khammam, who made their way to the meeting.
Srinivasa also enjoys influence in the Singareni Collieries region and was one among many, who campaigned for the TRS-affiliated workers union, Telangana Boggu Ghani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS), along with Nizamabad MP K Kavitha.
The mines in the Singareni Collieries region are spread over several districts, employ thousands of local residents. In October last year, after days of campaigning, the TBGKS retained its hold in the largest public sector company in the state, winning nine out of 11 divisions in the elections.