IT Raids Are Motivated: Marri Rajasekhar Reddy

Marri Rajasekhar Reddy, the son-in-law of Telangana Labour Minister Malla Reddy, today alleged that the income tax raids on his educational institutions were completely orchestrated by the BJP leaders.

Speaking to the media, Reddy said that he had been running the educational institutions for many years, and that the IT officials had carried out raids on his colleges three times over the years earlier, and had left with utmost satisfaction each time after verifying all records. But this time the raids appeared to be different from the earlier ones, he claimed.

"They appeared to be completely motivated. The officials harassed my parents aged above 75 years and other family members by asking questions which are not related to any financial transactions. The raids have not been done to verify the records, but conducted to harass us as we are associated with the TRS," Reddy said.

"The cash of Rs 4 crore which is said to have been seized by the IT department is not a big amount. I have five colleges. The staff salaries of each college amount to around Rs 2 crore per month. Thus, the salaries per month of the five colleges put together will be around Rs 10 crore. Moreover, the admission process for the first year courses has been only recently completed, and the colleges have received money from the students. The seized money is not ill-gotten or black money. We have all the details for it. We file income tax returns every year and GST returns every month. Our transactions are very fair and transparent," he said.

He alleged that the raids were carried out to exert pressure on the family members of Malla Reddy to make the latter quit the TRS and join the BJP.