CRPF would not have dared to enter the secretariat had Amma been alive, Rama Mohana Rao thundered at a press conference he addressed on Tuesday at his residence after being discharged from hospital. My life is in danger, he claimed.

Chennai: It is only after sacking that a senior civil servant, ex-Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao spoke to the media, and how. In a hard-hitting and almost political outburst, the former Chief Secretary took the centre and the Prime Minister on for sending in the para military forces to raid his home and that too without proper search order.

He then thanked opposition leader, AICC Vice President Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and AIADMK MP for speaking out against the raid and wondered what the Tamil Nadu government was doing when the raids were happening.

Did they take the permission of the Chief Minister or the Home Secretary? They were sitting in the secretariat only then, Rama Mohana Rao said. It is a constitutional assault on the office of the Chief Secretary, he said questioning how can the office of the Chief Secretary be raided.

He claimed that his life is in danger but did not elaborate from he faced threats.

Soon after the IT raid at his residence Rao got himself admitted to a private hospital here for chest pain. He was discharged couple of days later.

“Had Jayalalithaa been alive no one would have dared to do anything like this. In fact, CRPF would not even have entered the secretariat complex,” Rama Mohana Rao told media persons at his residence, few days after being raided by IT sleuths in connection with unaccounted cash and jewelry, the IT sleuths claimed was recovered from his house during two days of raids on him and his relatives places, including that of his son.

“I was under house arrest and they entered my house at gun point,” he said about the CRPF jawans who took positions in his house when the IT sleuths entered. “I do not know how many of them came and what they did,” he said adding they could find nothing from my house other than a little of a lakh rupees in cash,40 to 50 sovereigns of gold and 25 kgs of silver.

He claimed that he still was the Chief Secretary as the Tamil Nadu government did not serve him any transfer order.

“This government has no guts to serve the copy of the transfer order,” Rao thundered at his Anna Nagar residence here in Chennai.

Reacting to Rao’s outburst PMK founder S.Ramadoss said: “He has challenged the Central and the State governments and it is condemnable. The former Chief Secretary is trying to give a political colour to the IT raid issue by bringing in the name of Jayalalithaa. This is an attempt to deflect the IT probe which cannot be allowed. He can also tamper with the witness. Hence he should be arrested,” Ramadoss added.

Ramadoss also asked the Chief Minister to clarify on the issues raised by the former Chief Secretary.

A similar demand was also made by DMK leader M.K.Stalin when he spoke with media persons. .

The former Chief Secretary is under the Income Tax scanner and his residence and office were searched by Income Tax officials on December 21, and the search only concluded the next day.

The State government appointed Girija Vaidyanathan as the new Chief Secretary in Rao’s place.

Rama Mohana Rao said he had always followed Jayalalithaa’s orders and it was she who trained him since 1994.

“At gun point they entered my house. I was under house arrest,” Rao said, referring to the gun-totting CRPF personnel who were deployed at his residence to escort the IT officials.

Charging the Income Tax officials of entering his residence and his office in the State secretariat without any authorisation, Rao said: “The search warrant was in the name of my son, Vivek Papisetty.”

Rao questioned as to how IT officials could search the office of the Chief Secretary without due authorization.

The PMK leader Ramdoss too found IT action faulty and opaque.

He said had the IT department issued a statement on the seizures made at Rao’s house, the complaints against him and his family members the issue would not have arisen now.

“At least now the IT department should answer the charges levelled by Rao,” Ramadoss said.

Rao denied any links with businessman Shekar Reddy who is also under the IT department’s scanner.