The Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax officials on Wednesday raided the residence and other properties linked to Telangana minister and TRS leader Gangula Kamalakar in an illegal mining and money laundering case. The minister is reportedly on a holiday with his family in Dubai.
The raids were conducted at about 20 places in Karimnagar district, adjoining towns and state capital Hyderabad.
According to local media reports, the officials engaged a professional lock opener to enter the minister's house after they found it locked. Raids were also conducted at the office of Swetha Granites in Mankammathota, owned by the minister.
Kamalakar, 54, is the Minister for Backward Classes Welfare, Food and Civil Supplies, and is an MLA from Karimnagar constituency.
The ED case of money laundering stems from an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe alleged irregularities in granite trade in the state.
The ED move against the minister is likely to escalate the ongoing face-off between the ruling TRS and the BJP in the state. TRS supremo and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been alleging that the BJP government at the Centre was misusing the central agencies to harass the opposition leaders.