TD in eye of storm over Rs 7cr seizure

The main opposition Telugu Desam found itself in a fix on Thursday after the Telugu Yuvata state secretary, Mr P. Hari Babu’s father, Mr P. Ramakrishnaiah Naidu. and four friends were caught with unaccounted cash worth Rs 7 crore in their cars.

Adding to the party’s acute discomfiture, the Kadiri police who intercepted the two vehicles also found in them number plates (AP09AG393 and AP03AG0099) of cars that belonged to the convoy of the TD chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Congress leaders immediately alleged that the TD president had transported black money for local bodies’ elections, but Mr Hari Babu claimed that the cash belonged to his business friends Prakash and Basavaraju of Karnataka and was meant to purchase tipper lorries.

He also came up with the strange explanation that Mr Chandrababu Naidu’s number plates “probably” fell on the road and he had picked them up. “As a TD worker, I collected them and kept it in my vehicles,” he said. “If I use them, it is a crime. But, I didn’t.”

Soon after the seizure, the Income Tax department conducted flash raids at the posh houses of Mr Hari Babu in Nalanda Nagar and Vidyanagar of Tirupati and reportedly seized incriminating evidence.

Mr Ramakrishnaiah and four friends were travelling in two vehicles from Hospet to Tirupati when they were stopped by the Kadiri police on Wednesday evening for a routine vehicle check. The cops were stunned to see cash worth Rs 7 crore cash in 13 gunny bags and immediately arrested Mr Ramakrishnaiah, a company accountant, Mr Jangam Ramu, Mr Sompalli Venkataramana, Mr Bollepalli Venkatesh and Mr A. Ramesh.

On being questioned, the TD leader’s father told the police that the money had been withdrawn by Mr Hari Babu’s friends from the SBI Hospet branch in Karnataka and was being taken for routine business transactions to two iron ore agencies, Venkateshwara Logistics and Sairam Associates, floated by his son in Tirupati. But police registered a case under sections 41 (A) and 102 CrPC besides section 132 of the Income Tax act. The arrested were presented before senior civil judge in Kadiri and granted bail.

“We have the right to seize cash from any person who carries more than Rs 10 lakh,” said the district superintendent of police, Mr Maneeshkumar Sinha. The Telugu Yuvata leader, meanwhile, rubbished allegations that the cash belonged to Mr Chandrababu Naidu. “I had only arranged the transport for my friends when they required AP-registration vehicles,” he said. “My friends are into mining export business at Bellary and the cash was meant for purchase of tippers. We submitted proof to the SP of Anantapur.”

A senior TD leader clarified that Mr Hari Babu purchased a Safari vehicle for Mr Chandrababu Naidu’s convoy when he took out his ‘Mee Kosam Yatra’ at Chandragiri fort town last year. The same number is given to four or five vehicles in a convoy for security reasons.

“This way, Mr Naidu’s convoy number was put on the vehicle,” he said. “After the yatra, the vehicle was sent back to Tirupati. Though Mr Hari Babu replaced Mr Naidu’s number plate with his own, he kept the old number plate inside just to show how close he was to the party chief.”

Meanwhile, the minister for rural development, Mr Vatti Vasanth Kumar, demanded a CBCID prone into the cash seizure and the Youth Congress leader, Mr K. Nagendra Kumar, alleged that the cash was ‘black money’ of the TD chief.
But the TD said neither the party nor his president had any connection with the cash seizure. “Some vested interests are spreading canards,” said the party spokesman, Mr Varla Ramaiah.