IT raids continue, more cash seized

In Vellore, two cars, cash and jewels were seized.

Sources said that the IT staff counted the currency notes seized during the raid the whole of last night.

This was the fourth day of the IT raids on businessmen J. Shekhar Reddy, Srinivasalu Reddy and Prem that started on December 8.

Report said that based on the serial numbers in the new currency notes seized, the IT officials were trying to ascertain from which bank Reddy and his associates had managed to exchange old notes in such large volumes.

It may be recalled that Rs 24 crore cash in new notes were seized by the Income Tax department.

Officials said the seizure of new currency, in Rs 2000 notes, was made by the sleuths from a car in Vellore. With this amount, the total seizure in the case has now gone up to Rs 166 crore.

A senior department official said this seizure of gold and cash was 'an unprecedented amount that the Tax department has seized in recent times'.

The department, the officials said, carried out the searches based on intelligence inputs about the activities of Shekar Reddy and few others for the last few days.

Eight premises (six residential and two offices) were covered in the search operations. 

Sources from the IT Department revealed that Shekar, who is a contractor with the Public Works Department, was said to be closely associated with members of the ruling party in the State. 

Following the raids, he has been removed from the board of Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD), of which he was a trustee.