The Enforcement Directorate on Monday provisionally attached 30 kg of gold bars worth ₹8,56,99,350 seized from sand mining baron J. Sekhar Reddy and his associates Sreenivasulu and Prem Kumar under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
The Income Tax department conducted searches at various places of Sekhar Reddy, the managing partner of SRS Mining, and seized about ₹97 crore of old currency notes, ₹34 crore of new currencies and about 177 kg of gold bars.
Subsequently, the CBI registered FIRs against Reddy and his associates for converting demonetised currencies into new currencies fraudulently.
The Directorate of Enforcement has been conducting investigation under the PMLA against Reddy and others based on the CBI cases registered against them and about ₹34 crore of new currency seized had already been provisionally attached.
When quizzed, Sekhar Reddy stated that the cash seized belonged to his company SRS Mining, and admitted that it was unaccounted.
Details not revealed
He did not divulge the actual source of the new currencies other than stating that they were from the sand mining business.
Sreenivasulu stated that he used to receive money from SRS Mining and used part of the same for converting into gold bars through Prem Kumar as per the instructions of Sekhar Reddy.
The remaining cash was kept at various premises and the same was earlier recovered and seized by the Income Tax department.
The partners of SRS Mining stated that they used to transport huge cash by road without accompanying documents.
