ED searches Congress' Telangana candidate Vivek Venkatswamy in FEMA case probe

Hyderabad: A day after at least Rs 8 crore was transferred from Visaka Industries, owned by Congress’ Chennur candidate Vivek Venkat Swamy, income tax (I-T) department officials on Tuesday raided him, his brother and Congress’ Bellampalli candidate Gaddam Vinod and the company on Tuesday.

In a series of raids that extended from Hyderabad to Komaram Bheem Asifabad and Mancherial districts, a team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also went to Vivek’s Banjara Hills residence, which is under renovation.

Sources said that the raids started around 6 am on the day, from Vivek’s residence in Somajiguda. I-T returns (ITRs) of family members and bank accounts were scrutinised, and the family was inquired about recent cash transactions.

I-T officials also raided Vivek's residence in Mancherial, verified its documents and inquired about the bank account opened for election-related expenditures, focussing on cash transactions made by Vivek recently.

Speaking to mediapersons along with his son Vamshi, Vivek alleged that I-T and ED officials conducted raids at eight places, including his houses, farmhouse and relative's houses across the state.

Vivek alleged that the raids followed a complaint by BRS candidate Balka Suman, questioning why Union home minister Amit Shah had not taken action on the corruption allegations against Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his family.

Following the raids, Vivek alleged that the BJP and BRS had influenced the I-T department.  “We comply with law by filing I-TRs promptly without any violation. These raids were carried out deliberately with the influence of BJP and BRS.”

Congress’ former MP Ponnam Prabhakar also alleged that the two parties were conspiring against the Congress and trying to malign its image.

While the I-T officials were raiding Vivek’s residence in Mancherial, party workers staged a protest against the department.

Another team of I-T officials visited Visaka Industries office at Begumpet, verified the ITRs filed recently by the management and further, checked investments, purchase and sale reports. They collected documents, including bank statements, of business activities.

In the case of Vinod, IT officials suspected transactions, including the '8 crore transfer on Monday, between Vinod and Vivek.

The police had frozen the transaction and conducted raids to verify the accounts.

Earlier, I-T officials raided several Congress and BRS-linked members, including Banganpet Mayor Parijata Narsimha Reddy and BRS minister Sabitha Indira Reddy's close associates, suspecting cash transactions during the elections.

I-T and ED officials jointly raided the Maheshwari ginning factory in Repallewada of Tandur mandal, businessmen Rafiq’s house and former Kagaznagar market committee chairman K. Srinivas’ house in town. Sources said raids were conducted at ginning factories over complaints of large bank transactions by the factories.

Sources on Tuesday said that the I-T had also raided Siri Cotton Ginning Mill at Raghunathpalli mandal in Jangaon district on Tuesday, as part of raids on a series of rice and ginning mills.