I-T Raids Assault on Constitution, I am Still TN Chief Secy: Rama M Rao

Chennai: Sacked Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Rama Mohana Rao on Tuesday questioned the income tax raids against him calling it an assault on the Constitution and asserted that he is still in office.

Waving copies of the panchnama of the raid, Rao said the I-T sleuths found nothing at his house except "a few grams of gold, 25 kg of silver and Rs 1,12,320 only."

"I was surprised to see that my name was not there in search warrant and despite that they raided by house and claimed they found secret documents. I was under house arrest. It is a constitutional assault on chief secretary’s office," he said.

Rao said he is still the chief secretary as the government is yet to serve him a copy of his transfer order. The former chief secretary was removed from office and Girija Vaidyanathan appointed in his place a few days after the raids.

Rao claimed that his "life is in danger" and that he was being targeted for unknown reasons.

The raids showed that there was no respect for the people of the state he said adding that had former chief minister J Jayalalithaa been alive she would never have allowed this.

"The CRPF entered my house with guns. The search was at gunpoint. What wrong have I done?" he said.

Rao claimed he has no links with mining baron Sekhar Reddy as alleged. When asked if he would move court against his removal from office, he said he would go to "people's court".

Rao, who has so far received little support from his own state government, thanked West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for speaking out against his raids.

Immediately after Rao's news conference, Trinamool Congress leader Sougata Roy reiterated that the raids were an assault on the Constitution.

Contesting this BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao said central agencies were required to act with speed on tip-offs and hence it was impossible to inform the state government.