I-T Department raids residences of Telangana Congress leader Revanth Reddy; party claims 'political vendetta'

Hyderabad: The Income Tax Department conducted searches at the residences of Telangana Congress Working president A Revanth Reddy in Hyderabad on Thursday. The Congress party condemned the raids and termed it as “political vendetta” by the ruling TRS in the state and the BJP at the Centre. [caption id=“attachment_5272941” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image of Telangana Congress working president Revanth Reddy. Twitter/@revanth_anumula[/caption] A senior official of the I-T Department confirmed the searches but did not reveal details such as what triggered the raids. Calls made to Revanth Reddy for his reaction went unanswered. Reddy was appointed as one of the Working Presidents of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) recently. Jubilee Hills police inspector P Chandra Shekar told PTI they deployed police force near Reddy’s residence to avoid any untoward incident. The city police had earlier issued notice to the Congress leader and former MLA seeking his appearance as part of investigations in a case relating to alleged irregularities committed by office-bearers of a Co-operative Housing Society in 2004. Describing the I-T searches as “politically motivated”, TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy tweeted that the TRS and BJP were hand in glove. “IT & ED raids at @INCTelangana Working President @revanth_anumulas house is pure political vendetta to demoralise our strong MLAs. The people will teach KCR a lesson for being hand in glove with the BJP and the Central govt. I severely condemn these politically motivated raids,” he tweeted. On 31 May 2015, Revanth Reddy, then in Telugu Desam Party, was caught by Anti-Corruption Bureau while allegedly paying a bribe of Rs 50 lakh to Elvis Stephenson, a nominated MLA, for supporting TDP nominee Vem Narendar Reddy in Legislative Council elections held on 1 June 2015.

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 (@UttamINC) September 27, 2018