For Hyderabadi’s September is usually associated with heavy rains and they look forward to it. But this September it rained heavy raids on politicians. Suddenly, political leaders in the capital city of India’s youngest state -- Telangana -- found themselves under the scanner of investigative agencies. With elections round the corner, it’s obviously the opposition party leaders who are bearing the brunt.
The most high profile and attention grabbing is the one centred around A Revanth Reddy, the Cong (I) leader and most bitter critic of Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao. All the agencies including Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate and the police have served notices or conducted thorough searches so far.
In addition to Revanth, another Congress leader, T Jaya Prakash Reddy alias Jagga Reddy, a former MLA from Sangareddy, was even arrested and put behind bars for a few days on charges of human trafficking.
Incidentally, the case refers to 2004 when Jagga Reddy was in the Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS). He is alleged to have helped three persons immigrate to the US on fake passports after obtaining passports for his wife, son and daughter and affixing photographs of the former and travelling to the US and making monetary gains. He later quit TRS, fought on a Congress ticket in 2009 and won. But in 2014, he lost and has thereafter emerged among the vociferous critics of KCR.
Two others who got a taste of the long arm of the agencies are Sebastian, an important accused in the infamous `Vote for note' scam involving Revanth Reddy, MLC Stevenson and allegedly, N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, also.
The lone public representative from the ruling dispensation to see the investigators calling was Ponuguleti Srinivasa Reddy, a TRS MP representing Khammam. IT officials conducted searches in his residences and offices in Khammam and Hyderabad. He got elected to the Lok Sabha on a YSR Congress Party ticket in 2014 and later defected to the TRS.
The Revanth raids
The ostensible reason for targeting Revanth Reddy, a longtime Telugu Desam legislator and TDP legislature Party President after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, were the complaints filed by a lawyer Rama Rao with the CBI. However, Revanth Reddy alleges the personal and political vendetta of KCR is behind it. He has been anticipating their arrival.
The TDP, on the other hand, sees a larger picture, with the ruling BJP in collusion with the KCR Government resorting to it. The focus of these intense searches for nearly three days on Revanth, his family, friends and also some of the accused in the Vote for Note scam of 2015, is Chandrababu Naidu, they allege.
The firebrand Revanth, who has recently been made the working President of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, represents Kodangal constituency in Mahbubnagar district. He has launched a scathing attack on KCR & family, their corrupt rule and failures in delivering on promises. He is also fast emerging as one of the main opposition leaders threatening to dent the ruling party’s chances in the ensuing election.
In his first reaction, Revanth asserted that these raids would not deter him and they were part of a scheme to weaken the party. Coincidentally, Naidu also echoed Revanth’s reaction, saying the latter was being targeted by the BJP and the TRS to gain political mileage.