The Police Department seized wads of currency notes during multiple raids conducted on the houses of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders including Nellore City constituency candidate Ponguru Narayana, on March 4 (Monday).
Raids were conducted on the residences of former ZPTC member Muppalla Vijetha, Kota Gurubrahmam, Ramana Reddy, Srinivasulu and Suresh, an accountant of the Narayana group of educational institutions.
Upon receiving information about the raids, leaders including Nellore Rural MLA Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy and TDP Nellore parliamentary constituency in-charge Sk. Abdul Azeez rushed to Vijetha’s house and described it as ‘harassment of Opposition party leaders’. They wondered how the police could barge in and conduct searches without giving any reason or displaying any permission letter for the same. The police reportedly found ₹22,000 in cash at the house and returned.
However, Nellore Superintendent of Police K. Tirumaleswara Reddy told the media later that searches at Mr. Narayana’s close relatives yielded ₹1.82 crore. Mr. Narayana’s son-in-law Puneeth had reportedly raised GST invoices in the name of NSPIRA Management Services, allegedly evading tax on 84 vehicles. The firm had reportedly paid just ₹22 lakh as GST instead of ₹10.32 crore. Balaji Nagar police registered a case against Mr. Puneeth.
Acting on a complaint from the Transport Commissioner, searches were carried out to unearth the violations in APGST Act, Mr. Tirumaleswara Reddy said.
