Chennai: Enforcement Directorate and CBI have registered cases separately against PWD contractor and sacked Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam board member Sekhar Reddy and associates, after income tax sleuths seized a total of Rs 131 crore cash, including Rs 34 crore worth new Rs 2,000 notes and 177 kg gold seized from him and his associates Srinivasa Reddy and Prem.
CBI has confirmed that it has registered case against Reddy and his associates along with unknown bank officials and public servants under sections 120 B of IPC (criminal conspiracy ) 409,420 of IPC (cheating), besides prevention of corruption act.
CBI sleuths will be hunting for bankers who helped Reddy, who is known as ‘Isuku’ Sekhar in sand mining circles, to get Rs 34 crore worth new notes, sources said. Sekhar Reddy was said to be a benami of a senior IAS officers in TN.
It may be noted that CBI had been quietly registering cases and chasing bankers and private persons in other cities whenever there was a huge seizure of new notes, be it in Hyderabad or Bengaluru.
Enforcement directorate’s focus will be on the possible money laundering activities by Sekhar Reddy. “CBI will be focusing on government servants, be it postal employees or bankers who had helped the sand don to accumulate so much of new notes, while ordinary people waited in long queues to withdraw Rs 4,000 and Rs 2,000 in front of the bank and ATMs respectively for hours together," CBI sources said.
Sekhar Reddy, who became a member of the TTD board on the TN government's recommendation was sacked from the board by the Andhra Pradesh government after the huge seizure of cash and gold.
