The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday registered a case against former Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) board member J. Sekhar Reddy and his business partner Sreenivasulu under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Prem Kumar, their associate, will also be quizzed.
The ED will be investigating how these three persons managed to get new Rs. 2,000 currency notes at a time when people are standing in queues in front of banks and ATMs for withdrawing cash.
The Income Tax Department seized Rs. 34 crore in new notes during the raids two weeks back from the premises of the trio. The taxmen began their search on December 8 on eight premises (six residential and two offices).
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K.S.V.V. Prasad, Joint Director, Enforcement Directorate, Chennai, told
The CBI has registered a case against Sekhar Reddy and others under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The case follows raids on the premises of Mr. Reddy and his associates Prem Kumar and Sreenivasulu that led to seizure of huge quantity of cash and gold in Chennai, Vellore and other places. After preliminary investigation, the CBI registered a case against the trio, unknown bank officials and public servants under Section 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) read with Section 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) of IPC and other provisions under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
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Parrying questions on the nature of investigation, findings and role of bank officials or public servants in the case, a senior CBI official said revealing such information at this stage could affect further investigation. No arrests have been made in the case till date, the official added.