VISAKHAPATNAM: Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao alias Avanthi on Saturday alleged that Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu and his son Lokesh were involved in money laundering. Addressing mediapersons, he said the income tax (I-T) raids, which unearthed `2,000 crore reportedly siphoned off by firms and individuals known to Naidu, Lokesh and his personal secretary Srinivas, indicated that he (Naidu) was into money laundering.
Avanthi urged Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to initiate an inquiry by various law enforcement agencies and seize all benami assets and punish the guilty. He also demanded cancellation of passports of Naidu, Lokesh and all those who are under focus. He said that it was because of large-scale corruption that he (Avanthi) had quit the TDP. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had distanced himself from Naidu after he came to know about corruption.
The minister alleged that Naidu had swindled funds allocated by the Centre for various projects and parked them in various accounts in foreign countries. He even funded the opposition parties in various States that fought against the BJP and Modi, he alleged. Srinivasa Rao questioned why did the former TDP government take loans to the tune of `2.5 lakh crore? Naidu is answerable to the people as to where the money had gone and how and where the funds were utilised, he said.
“If the I-T department can unearth documents pertaining to `2,000 crore from Naidu’s personal secretary and a few others, one can imagine the extent of corruption during his regime,” the minister said. Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan should question Naidu on corruption charges. Referring to the remarks made by a minister that YSRC may join NDA, he said, “one should not read between the lines in a talk between the Chief Minister and the PM. Important decisions like that can only be taken by Jagan Mohan Reddy.”