T. Venkattram Reddy, chairman of the Hyderabad-based media house Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, and his brother and vice-chairman T. Vinayak Ravi Reddy, were arrested here on Saturday by the CBI officials in a bank fraud case.
They were produced before the CBI court judge at his residence in Secunderabad and later lodged in the Chanchalguda prison after the judge remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days. A special team of the Bank Securities and Fraud Cell of the CBI came to the Deccan Chronicle office in Secunderabad in the morning and took them to the CBI office at Koti, city police officials unwilling to be quoted told The Hindu .
After prolonged interrogation over the alleged fraud involving nearly Rs. 360 crore, the CBI officials arrested them.
“We will move bail petition tomorrow [Sunday],” counsel Arcot Chandrashekhar told reporters outside the judge’s residence.
Seventy-seven-year-old DCHL company owns three English dailies, Deccan Chronicle , Financial Chronicle and The Asian Age and a Telugu daily Andhra Bhoomi .
The Canara Bank, which was among the key state-owned lenders to the media house, lodged a complaint with the CBI in July, 2013 charging that the DCHL promoters defrauded the bank and that it had found some discrepancies in the audit books of the company.
