In a surprising development, sleuths of Income Tax department have been conducting raids on the houses of P Srinivasa Rao, who served as personal secretary of Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu till recently.
According to sources, around 50 Income Tax department officials swooped on the residence of Srinivas in Hyderabad and also in Vijayawada in the morning, following information that he had assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. They have been conducting searches since then.
The I-T department officials were assisted by para-military forces from Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in conducting searches.
The forces did not allow media persons to come anywhere near the house of Srinivas in Hyderabad.
Presently, Srinivas is said to be working as a senior official in the commercial taxes department in Andhra Pradesh.
He was originally associated with a senior IAS officer in the CMO during Naidu’s regime as the chief minister of combined AP between 1995 and 2004.
Later, Srinivas got associated with the TDP president as his personal assistant since 2004, when the latter lost power to Y S Rajasekhar Reddy in the combined AP regime.
When Naidu became the chief minister of residuary Andhra Pradesh in 2014, Srinivas joined him as the personal secretary.
Sources said the I-T department officials are acting on a tip off that Srinivas could have amassed big money during the TDP regime. They are also said to be looking into any of his benami activities during the said period.