Hyderabad: The police was called in at the home of a minister of Andhra Pradesh today after a bag was found abandoned on the premises. Inside, they found Rs. 10 lakh in cash.
The find at the Eluru home of Peethala Sujatha, Women and Child Welfare Minister, comes as the Chandrababu Naidu government is struggling to contain the controversy of the cash for vote scam. Earlier this week, a lawmaker of Mr Naidu's party, the Telugu Desam Party, was arrested while allegedly bribing an independent lawmaker ahead of the legislative council election.
The elections were held on Monday, in which TDP failed to win a single seat. This time, there is speculation that the cash was meant as a bribe by someone who wanted a teaching job, a source said.
This is because along with the cash, the bag was found to contain an entry pass for the District Selection Committee exam. The results of the exam, which is held to recruit teachers for government schools, came out yesterday.
The entry pass belonged to one Sri Lakshmi, whose mother, 62-year-old Vishnuvati, has come forward to claim the bag. Vishnuvati said she had withdrawn the money from bank for the wedding of her niece. She claimed she had left the bag behind by mistake when she came to meet the minister's father.
The minister said the episode had been engineered by her political rivals to defame her. "I don't even know the woman whose money it is," she told the media.
Sources said In November 2014, Ms Sujatha, who is also the mines minister, was chided by the Chief Minister for accepting the gift of a golden waistband worth Rs 37 lakh from the mining lobby.
The police said they were investigating all angles. "We have seized the cash and handed over in court,'' investigating officer Soumya Latha told NDTV.