Not a single photograph of Sana Satish Babu could be traced online. For a man listed as a director of 14 companies, who at one time owned the Playboy Club in Hyderabad, the rare presence is part of the enigma.
As journalists reached his house in the upscale Hill Ridge Villas in the western suburb of Gachibowli, the security guards had a series of curt answers about the occupants of villa no 72. “You cannot go inside. His family left this place two days ago. No, the house has not been vacated.” Mr. Babu is from Thammavaram near Kakinada.
In 2014, he acquired the Playboy Club in Hyderabad and promised to spread the franchisee to other parts of the country. Right-wing groups struck, and after much wrangling, under police protection, the pink decor club began low-key operations. The entrepreneur who sold the franchise to Satish Sana Babu remembers the smooth deal where the payments were prompt and timely. "The club quickly acquired a rather seedy reputation. It became known for attracting a different kind of clientele than what was hoped for. Many people started avoiding it because of the reputation," said one visitor to the club. Eventually, the club shut shop. "I don't know when it shut down. We have another club which functions of Friday, Saturday and Wednesday," informed an employee of Novotel Hyderabad where the Playboy Club was first launched in India.
At the centre of big power play in Delhi, where CBI Director Alok Verma is pitted against his number two, Rakesh Asthana, Mr. Babu has emerged as a key figure connecting the dots between the murky political world and wheeler-dealers of officialdom.
His name first emerged when the CBI began investigating the allocation of 15,000 acres of land to Vanpic Shipyard Private Ltd. Vanpic was incorporated on June 19, 2008. A few months later, Mr. Babu was appointed a director of the company. Vadarevu and Nizampatnam Industrial Corridor (Vanpic) is named as the firm helmed by Nimmagadda Prasad who was accused no 12 in the FIR filed by the CBI and accused no. 3 in the charge sheet filed on August 2011. Mr. Prasad spent some time in judicial custody after he was picked up on May 2012. Vanpic has been probed by multiple agencies for land dealings facilitated allegedly by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy during the reign of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
While one CBI team reportedly named Mr. Babu as a go-between in the bribery allegations against Mr. Asthana, another CBI team dug up evidence to prove he was in Hyderabad when the said transaction took place.
Mr. Babu did not reply to a mail sent to him on Tuesday.
