Chennai: Income-tax sleuths wrapped up their raids and searches on eight premises belonging to TTD board member and PWD sand contractor Sekhar Reddy and his associates in Chennai and Vellore on Friday. The final tally of seized currency notes of Rs 106.5 crore and 127 kg gold worth Rs 38 crore was given out as Rs 144.5 crores.
The investigators were trying to extract a statement from sekhar Reddy to know the source of his illegal money. “He is a tough nut to crack. He is claiming that the entire money and gold belonged to him. He is yet to name any TN politician or bureaucrat, although we know his links,” a senior income-tax official said. Income-tax officials believe that he is the benami of a senior IAS official in the state.
Sekhar Reddy's BMW was found parked in his house. It had a non-official 'Secretariat car pass' valid upto November 30, 2016, which ensured till recently his smooth passage into the Secretariat building in Fort St George.
While one team was trying for a statement, another set of investigators contacted three NSC Bose Road financiers who had helped the sand don to exchange crores of rupees worth old notes into new ones. “Those three men have been summoned by the officials to appear on Saturday for a detailed enquiry. We should know from where those notes came and which banks helped Sekhar Reddy to change currency on such a large scale,” a source in the income-tax department said. Reddy had managed to change old notes from various banks through his contacts. Officials said such transactions were not carried out through just one or two banks.
The I-T raids on Thursday on premises belonging to Sekhar Reddy, also known as Isuku (sand in Telugu) Sekhar and his associates Srinivasa Reddy and Prem created ripples in the TN government and political circles because of his links with certain senior IAS officers and TN ministers. In October, he had reportedly even taken Tirupati prasadam to Apollo hospital to give to former CM Jayalalithaa.
“We believe that the seized amount could be his illegal collection of just the last two weeks," IT sources hinted. The officials said a number of documents relating to financial transactions, entries of gold sale and records of transactions have also been seized from Reddy's premises.
The I-T department has not ruled out the possibility of sharing the details with Enforcement Directorate and CBI for further probe into money laundering and corruption angles in the sensational case of the seizure from Sekhar Reddy. Some bank officials are also under the scanner of the taxmen.
