The Madras High Court has modified the bail conditions of industrialist and mining baron J. Sekhar Reddy and two of his associates, who were arrested in connection with a money laundering case registered against them by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Justice S. Bhaskaran, who passed the orders on a petition filed by Mr. Sekhar Reddy, directed him to appear before the ED, Chennai on July 24 and 31 and thereafter on alternate Mondays until further orders.
ED’s contention
Earlier, the Madras High Court had granted bail to Mr. Sekhar Reddy and two of his associates and directed them to stay at New Delhi and report before the officer-in-charge of the case at the ED in Delhi until further orders. The court had already modified the bail conditions of his two associates, who were appearing before the official concerned at the directorate.
On its part, the ED submitted that the investigation of the case has to be continued in Chennai, and hence, no purpose will be served if the petitioner is allowed to sign at the Delhi office. Stating that the State police has to give protection to the accused, the ED sought to relax the bail condition enabling the accused to sign before the ED officials in Chennai.
On December 9, the Income Tax department, during a search, unearthed ₹96.89 crore in old high denomination notes and ₹ 9.63 crore in ₹2,000 notes, along with gold weighing 127 kg, approximately worth ₹36.29 crore.
Huge haul
A day after, another ₹24 crore in ₹2,000 notes was seized by the department. On December 20, 2016, the ED registered a case against Mr. Reddy and his business partner under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
