VIJAYAWADA: Income Tax department sleuths had only found Rs 2.63 lakh unaccounted cash in the house of P Srinivas, the former personal secretary of N Chandrababu Naidu when the latter was Chief Minister, and not Rs 2000 crore as being claimed by the ruling YSRC.
Sources in TDP told TNIE that, apart from the cash, the I-T officials had seized 12 tolas of gold during their 5-days searches in the properties of Srinivas in Vijayawada and Hyderabad last week. “We have evidence to prove our claims. We have Panchanama copy given by the I-T department, wherein it was clearly mentioned that only Rs 2,63,000 were seized and the receipt had signatures of both Srinivas and I-T department officials,” sources said.
With evidence in hand, TDP leaders including MP Kinjarpu Rammohan Naidu, former home minister Nimmakayala Chinarajappa, BV Jaya Nageswara Reddy, Maganti Roopa took to social media and lashed out at YSRC for its ‘unrealistic’ claims that Rs 2,000 crore unaccounted money was found in the house of Srinivas and linking the entire issue to TDP, stating it is only tip of the iceberg and more would be revealed in future.
On February 13 (Thursday), the I-T department had issued a statement that during their searches at more than 40 different premises in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Kadapa, Visakhapatnam, Delhi and Pune, the unaccounted income of more than Rs 2000 crore was detected.
Following the disclosure by the I-T department, a war of words broke out between ruling YSRC and principal opposition TDP, with both levelling allegations on one another of corruption and nepotism. YSRC leaders including ministers claimed that all the unaccounted money seized by the I-T department was from Srinivas, while TDP leaders refuted and dismissed them as baseless allegations.