Rao denies any wrongdoing

Interim CBI director M. Nageswara Rao on Tuesday denied allegations of any wrongdoing in investments made by his wife in a private firm, and said in a statement that the money was borrowed by his wife, Mannem Sandhya, from her “longtime family friend.”

Mr Rao’s clarification follows allegations of laundering money through a shell company based in Kolkata.

Mr Rao, an Odisha cadre IPS officer, said all financial dealings by him and his wife have been given to all concerned authorities, and that all property and other details have been submitted in the annual property returns filed with the government.

While giving details of the transaction, Mr Rao said his wife had taken a loan of Rs 25 lakh from Angela Mercantile Pvt Ltd, a company that belongs to an old associate, Praveen Agarwal, for the purchase of an immovable property in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

The property, he said, was purchased by his wife and her cousin, Dr R.K. Rana Babu, on September 18, 2010.

A year later, he said, his wife sold some acres of land from her inherited agricultural property for `30.72 lakh and two months later sold more land for an amount of `27.90 lakh.

“Thus she received a total amount of `58.62 lakh as sale proceeds during 2011. This along with `1.38 lakh from personal savings, a total of `60 lakh was sent to Angela Mercantiles Private limited in 2011, who after deducting the loan amount retained the balance of `35 lakh as investment,” he said.

Mr Rao added that in July 2014, a little less than three years of the investment, the Kolkata-based company returned to her a total of `41.33 lakh which included an interest of `6.33 lakh.