Chennai: The Madras high court granted conditional bail to PWD contractor and sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy and two of his associates arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering. Justice S. Bhaskaran granted conditional bail to Sekhar Reddy, Srinivasulu, and Premkumar arrested by the ED for possessing Rs 34 crore in new Rs 2000 currency notes. On December 20, 2016, the ED registered a case against Reddy and his business partner Srinivasulu under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on FIR registered by CBI.
Justice S. Bhaskaran observed that there was no material to prove that the accused were guilty of the offence and further, as the limitations of Section 45(1) of PMLA were not applicable, it should be treated as regular bail. They shall execute a bail bond for a sum of Rs 10 lakh with two solvent sureties each for a like sum to the satisfaction of the VIII additional sessions court of CBI cases at Chennai. The judge said, “The petitioners have been interrogated in custody and have been in custody for over 50 days in this case.” He directed the petitioners to stay in New Delhi and report before the officer-in-charge of PMLA case, Enforcement Directorate at Delhi at 10 am until further orders and directed them to surrender their passports.
