ED arrests sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy
CHENNAI: The ED has arrested sand mining baron J Sekhar Reddy and his two alleged associates in connection with one of the biggest black money and money laundering cases booked post demonetisation. Officials said the agency arrested Reddy, K Sreenivasulu and Prem Kumar on Monday under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after they were called for questioning at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office here. The agency said it has “reasonable belief that these three persons are involved in money laundering.” The three were later produced in a court which sent them to jail till March 28. They are now lodged in the Puzhal central jail, they added. Reddy was earlier arrested by the CBI too in the same case of alleged black money generation post demonetisation and was out on bail.
CHENNAI: The ED has arrested sand mining baron J Sekhar Reddy and his two alleged associates in connection with one of the biggest black money and money laundering cases booked post demonetisation.
Officials said the agency arrested Reddy, K Sreenivasulu and Prem Kumar on Monday under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after they were called for questioning at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office here.
The agency said it has “reasonable belief that these three persons are involved in money laundering.”
The three were later produced in a court which sent them to jail till March 28. They are now lodged in the Puzhal central jail, they added.
Reddy was earlier arrested by the CBI too in the same case of alleged black money generation post demonetisation and was out on bail.
A total of five people have now been arrested in this case by the ED as it had earlier nabbed Mahavir Hirani and Ashok Jain in December last year.
The agency had filed a criminal complaint against Reddy and others based on a CBI FIR in the case which was registered after the I-T department first searched his and his associates’ premises in November, 2016.
The ED in a statement said Reddy told it that “cash seized by the Income Tax department belongs to his SRS mining company and he admitted that it was unaccounted money.
“He has not divulged the actual source of new currencies other than stating that it is from the sand mining business.
He stated that the seized 177kg gold bars belong to him and the same was procured through Prem Kumar,” it said.
The I-T department has made one of the biggest detection of alleged unaccounted income of over Rs 142 crore in this case with the seizure of Rs 34 crore in new notes, post demonetisation.