Former Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, whose house and office were searched by the Income Tax department on December 21, on Tuesday alleged that he had been put under house arrest and that his life was in danger.

“The Central Reserve Police Force entered my house and my son’s house at gunpoint,” he said, according to ANI, adding that the search warrant produced by the CRPF did not have his name on it. “The search warrant had the name of my son...They found nothing. No incriminating documents were found. There was no secret chamber,” he said. “I was under house arrest. It is an unconstitutional assault on the office of the chief secretary...I am being targeted. I fear my life is in danger.”

Officials had conducted searches at Rao’s home on December 21 and at seven other locations. Addressing the media outside his house on Tuesday, Rao said the investigators found Rs 1,12,320 in his house, gold that belongs to his wife and daughter, and silver articles and ornaments of deities weighing around 20-25 kg. “I am going to people’s court,” he said.

Rao questioned whether the CRPF had the right to enter his house. “Where is the state government? What role or business does the Government of India and CRPF have to enter a Chief Secretary’s chamber? Did they get the chief minister’s permission?” Rao said “If madam [former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa] had been alive, would this happen in Tamil Nadu?”

Rao also distanced himself from Sekhar Reddy, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam functionary and sand mining baron who had been arrested by CBI on December 21 with large amounts of black money. “I have no links with Sekhar Reddy. I have nothing to do with him. He has nothing to do with any government business,” he told reporters.

“I am the chief secretary of Tamil Nadu. They have no guts to serve me with the copy of transfer order,” he said. It was reported on December 22 that Tamil Nadu’s Additional Chief secretary and Commissioner of Land Administration Girija Vaidyanathan was appointed the state’s new chief secretary.

Rao later thanked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for support him.