By IANS,
Hyderabad : Income Tax officials Friday searched the homes and offices of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP Nama Nageswara Rao across several cities including Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi and Hyderabad.
Suspecting tax evasion, IT sleuths conducted simultaneous searches at the residences and premises of the companies owned by Rao at Khammam and in major Indian cities. The searches, which began in the morning, were still on.
Informed sources said the searches were conducted at the offices of Madhucon Group of companies belonging to the MP to check if there is any tax evasion.
Madhucon Infra, a part of Madhucon Group, executes roads and other infrastructure projects in Andhra Pradesh, in other states and abroad.
Nageswara Rao, who represents Khammam constituency, is the leader of the TDP in the Lok Sabha.
With assets of Rs.173 crore, he is the richest MP in the present Lok Sabha, according to a report by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
TDP has reacted sharply to the raids, terming them “political vendetta”.
TDP activists staged a protest at Rao’s camp office in Khammam when the IT searches were on. They raised slogans against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
The TDP leader was not present at the time of the raid.