The income tax searches going on in the residences and offices of Telugu Desam Party Rajya Sabha member and industrialist C M Ramesh and his brothers seem to have unearthed a big financial fraud, if the reports coming from inside sources are to believed.
Ramesh and his brothers are putting up a brave front saying the Income Tax authorities had hardly found anything in their searches.
The MP in fact said the IT officials had finished their job within a couple of hours, but spent time till evening having cups of tea and watching television.
However, sources said the authorities had dug up deeper into the financial transactions of the MP and his inflated bills on various projects.
They also found that the income of Rithwik Projects had gone up by 145 per cent in a span of two years between 2015 and 2017.
The authorities also discovered siphoning of funds into shell companies floated by Ramesh with Kadapa as the base.
Though there is no immediate threat to Ramesh as of now, as the authorities would focus more on tax evasion and unearthing source of money, rather than arresting him.
But what is more important is that the raids would result in stoppage of flow of funds into the Telugu Desam Party kitty for spending in the coming elections.
“The whole exercise of the IT raids is to disconnect all the routes of income to the TDP for spending in the next elections. If the TDP is deprived of funds, the BJP has won the half of the battle,” sources said.