HYDERABAD: As the Income Tax sleuths continued searches on the properties of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s close confidant and TDP Rajya Sabha member CM Ramesh in Hyderabad, Ramesh arrived at his residence at Jubilee Hills on Saturday evening. He reportedly arrived after the officials asked him to be present during the searches.
Ramesh reiterated that the searches were politically motivated and an act of revenge on him, due to his strong stand on the Centre’s failure in according the promised special category status to AP. He said that there is a high-security locker at his home which can be accessed only with his finger print.
“I am here to cooperate with them. The center thinks that they can shut me up with these raids, but I am not scared of them. I am ready to open the locker even in presence of the media if the officers let me. Except for a few clothes, there is nothing in the locker,” Ramesh said, speaking to reporterss on Saturday
Ramesh further maintained that he is filing I-T returns regularly without fail and had paid around `300 crore in the form of taxes in the past four years.
“The notices are on my wife’s name. But I am asked to come and open the locker. There is no truth in the allegation that I have shifted huge sums of money to Delhi,” he said.Ramesh also expressed his readiness to take on the challenge of BJP national spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao. “Is he an I-T officer or a government spokesperson to speak on the States’ issues.
What is his credibility? I challenge him once again for an open debate on any allegation that he is making against me, the party or even the State as such,” he said.