![[Representative image] Congress supporters wave a party flag | Reuters](https://img.theweek.in/content/dam/week/news/biz-tech/images/2019/1/2/rupee-cash.jpg "[Representative image] Congress supporters wave a party flag | Reuters")
A special team of the Income Tax Department has conducted raids at the residence of an AICC cashier in Kerala's Kochi on Friday and Saturday. The searches are reportedly related to the nationwide clampdown against Congress leaders in cases of money laundering and possession of black money.
A team of taxmen from Delhi flew down to raid the Chottanikkara residence of Mathew Varghese, who has been a cashier at the Congress headquarters since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru. The team began conducting raids in the wee hours of Friday and continued it on Saturday, too. Varghese, an octogenarian, was reportedly questioned in detail during the raid by the Income Tax department on the financial dealings of AICC treasurer Ahmed Patel.
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Varghese has been residing in the national capital for the past 50 years and was in charge of AICC’s major financial transactions. All financial transactions of the party that involves Rs 5 lakh and above were being dealt by him. The raid comes at a time when Varghese was on a break in Kerala.
Reportedly, the Income Tax department is trying to find trails in relation to the money laundering cases filed former finance minister P. Chidambaram and Karnataka Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar. Both Chidambaram and Shivakumar, currently in police custody, are facing charges of money laundering. In addition, the I-T department also raided former Karnataka deputy chief minister G. Parameswara on Friday.
