Ex-minister’s wife caught with Rs 45 lakh cash

HYDERABAD: In a state where ministers and their families thinking nothing of misusing their official positions and throwing their weight around, former minister K Parthasarathi’s wife was caught carrying Rs 45 lakh cash while travelling in a Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) bus by the authorities in the wee hours of Friday. Such buses are used by the aam admi for their travels.Andhra Pradesh continues to lead the country in the seizure of poll-related money and a week ago a TDP candidate was nabbed travelling in a bus with Rs 90 lakh cash.
Parthasarathi had quit the Congress and is now the YSR Congress candidate for the Machilipatnam Lok Sabha constituency. According to police, his wife Kamala, resident of Srinagar Colony here, boarded the APSRTC bus accompanied by a male attendant. The bus was travelling from Kukatpally to Guntur.
A little past midnight, the police stopped the bus for checking at Autonagar in Vanasthalipuram. Kamala was carrying two bags. While one bag contained personal belongings, the other was stuffed with currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination. When questioned about the source of cash, Kamala identified herself as the wife of Parthasarathi and said she was the MD of Nitin Sai Constructions owned by the family. The cash was meant to be distributed to her employees at Hanuman Junction near Eluru, she claimed.
As she could not produce documentary evidence to support her claim, Kamala and her associate were taken to Vanasthalipuram police station. There, the cash was counted and it amounted to Rs 45.1 lakh. Meanwhile, Kamala telephoned someone from her cell phone and requested the inspector to speak with that person. As the electronic media was recording the proceedings, the inspector declined to do so. Kamala also requested the media not to record the developments. Police later said that the former minister’s wife was uncooperative and gave evasive or no answers to the questions posed by them.
The cops then recorded the statement of Kamala, videographed it and let her go around 2.30 am. The seized cash was handed over to the income tax authorities who will probe the source of the money. Claiming that the money was meant to be circulated to the electorate in return for votes, Cyberabad police are seeking permission from the local court to register a criminal case against Kamala under section 171 B and 171 E of the IPC. Section 171 B pertains to bribery and 171 E is punishment for bribery.
“These sections are about gratifying the voter and it is a non-cognizable offence. In such cases, police can register an FIR only with the permission of the local magistrate concerned. In this case, Kamala failed to disclose the source of money and we will tell the magistrate that she is the wife of the contesting candidate Parthasarathi and that her travel destination is also close to Machilipatnam, the constituency from where her husband is fighting the election,” deputy commissioner of police Viswa Prasad told TOI.
Meanwhile, reacting to the seizure of Rs 45.1 lakh cash from his wife Kamala by Cyberabad police, Parthasarathi claimed before the media in Machilipatnam that he possessed records and receipts for the transactions and was not worried about the seizure. The money was being brought to Vijayawada for payment of salaries to the staff of Nitin Sai Constructions owned by his family and for election expenditure, he said.
The former minister pointed out that he is entitled to spend Rs 70 lakh for the election as per the election commission guidelines and the amount seized was much less than the limit prescribed by the poll panel.
“We will submit the records to the authorities concerned and get the amount released,” he said.