Hyderabad: Central Crime Station sleuths on Thursday sought legal advice on a complaint lodged by the income-tax department alleging that three people have cheated Lakshman Rao, who declared having Rs 9,800 crore of undisclosed money under the Income Declaration Scheme.
A top city police official said, “We received a complaint on Thursday from the income- tax department regarding Banapuram Lakshman Rao. We haven’t issued any FIR so far. It was alleged by the income-tax officials that Lakshman Rao was cheated by Shoukath Baba and two others who promised that he will get Rs 10,000 crore through rice pulling. As there is no clarity on who cheated whom, we are working on legal aspects.”
Laxman Rao informed the I-T officials that he was cheated by Shoukat Ali alias “Barkas Baba”.
Legal experts opined that the case about Lakshman Rao and others cheating the income-tax department.
Meanwhile, Laxman Rao claimed that he was innocent and was forced by the rice pulling gang to submit the income declaration.
“Shoukat Ali (Barkas Baba) lured me with a rice pulling coin. He cheated me. I blindly followed his instructions,” he said.
Telangana labour team raids Rao’s house
Officials from the Telangana state labour department on Thursday conducted raid at the house of Banapuram Laxman Rao after receiving credible info-rmation of him employing child labour.
With the family members of Laxman Rao refusing to allow labour officials enter their house, officials took police protection and went ahead with the raid.
Assistant labour officer B. Venugopal said they received a complaint from unknown persons stating that two girls were working in Laxman Rao’s house. “During our raids, it was found that both the girls are majors,” he said.
The official, however, said that a case would be filed under the Mini-mum Wages Act as Laxman Rao’s family violated the Act. “An 18-year-old girl is drawing Rs 4,000 and another 20-year-old girl is drawing Rs 6,000 per month. Based on this, we shall file a case,” he said.
