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In an unprecedented action, income-tax authorities conducted searches at the residence and office of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao.
According to an income-tax official, the searches were conducted in 10 places, including those of Rao’s son Vivek, at Chennai and Chittoor. Over ₹18 lakh in new large-denomination currencies, 2 kg bullion and documents relating to ₹5 crore worth of unaccounted property have been uncovered and the searches are going on.
Apart from the search at Rao’s residence beginning from dawn, the authorities also conducted searches at his office in the Tamil Nadu Secretariat. The search began at about 2.20 pm at the Secretariat and continued late into the evening, he said.
The team conducting the searches includes 10 officials, 90 staff and 20 CRPF personnel. The investigation and searches were based on a tip-off from Sekhar Reddy, a contractor handling government projects, from whom the authorities seized a huge haul of unaccounted cash and gold.
Rao was appointed the Chief Secretary in June when the present government was led by then chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who died earlier this month.
PTI reports : “A total of 13 premises are being searched,” a senior official said, adding the premises connected to Rao’s son and other relatives are part of the operation.
The searches that began as early as 6:00 AM are on at various places in the state and neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh.
Rao was appointed the top state bureaucrat in June this year by the state government.
The searches, they said, are related to the department’s probe in the biggest haul of cash and gold here post demonetisation, in which over Rs 142 crore unaccounted assets have been recovered so far.
The total seizure in the case is over Rs 170 crore in a single case related to action against sand mining operators in the state and few others including S Reddy, who was also on the panel of a religious shrine body.
DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin tweeted that such a raid is "shameful. Authorities who are corrupt should not be allowed to escape".
தமிழக வரலாற்றில் இதுவரை இல்லாத வகையில் தலைமைச் செயலாளர் வீட்டில் வருமான வரித்துறை சோதனை என்பது தமிழகத்தை தலைகுனிய வைத்துள்ளது #ITRaidpic.twitter.com/VbLuOF8mvi
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) December 21, 2016
ஊழல் முறைகேடுகள் மூலம் லாபம் பார்த்த ஆட்சியாளர்கள், அதிகாரிகள், ஆட்சியை ஆட்டி வைப்பவர்கள் உள்ளிட்டோர் தப்பி விடக்கூடாது #ITraid
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) December 21, 2016
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