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Lodha confesses to deal with Reddy: CBI
Notorious hawala kingpin Parasmal Lodha, who had been taken in to police custody by the Anti-Corruption Branch of CBI, has allegedly admitted to have given Sekhar Reddy Rs 8 crore but refused to divulge the details. Lodha, who was very slow to open up according to CBI sources, has confessed about his links with the sand mining baron.
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Highly-placed CBI sources said they could not grill Lodha further to make him say more due to his age and ill health. “We could not interrogate him properly as he complains of ill health and is aged. However, he admitted his connections with the sand mining baron, but we suspect that the alleged transaction happened much earlier,” a CBI official told DTNext.
CBI hopes to get more information from Sekhar Reddy and associates in the coming days as they have filed a fresh application for further police custody of the accused. The petition will be coming up for hearing at the CBI court for bank fraud cases on Tuesday. So far, Sekhar Reddy has not opened up anything about the bulk exchange of demonetised currency and reports regarding CBI zeroing in on the bankers who helped him are false, sources said.
“He has been maintaining that the new currency notes seized from him were his collection from sand mines across the state,” the official added. Meanwhile, Enforcement Directorate, which had arrested Parasmal Lodha and included him as a co-accused in the money laundering case registered against Sekhar Reddy, maintains that Lodha only helped Reddy to exchange the demonetised currency in bulk.
ED said their Delhi and Mumbai counterparts had got clear evidences to prove this and that was why Lodha had been made a co-accused in the case against Sekhar Reddy.
DVAC’s silence puzzle national probe agencies
The lack of interest shown by the State’s Directorate of Vigilance and AntiCorruption (DVAC) to probe the corruption charges against Sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy and his associates including former Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Rama Mohana Rao has puzzled the other three agencies.
Sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy, his associates Prem Kumar, Srinivasulu, Rathinam, Ramachandran and former Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Rama Mohana Rao and an international hawala operator Parasmal Lodha were some of the names that hit headlines in the last one month ever since the I-T department’s drive against the unaccounted cash.
Though three different agencies — CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department — have booked a number of cases against them, the accused so far stand their ground and protect their political as well as bureaucratic bosses, despite being grilled by both CBI and Enforcement Directorate. It all started with a large-scale raids carried out by the Income Tax department, which seized a whopping Rs 132.5 crore in cash and 177 kg gold from the custody of Sekhar Reddy and associates.
IT also got important documentary evidences against the gang, including the list of regular payees in the list of Sekhar Reddy. They are still the custodians of these documents, except for some information passed on to CBI and ED. Both CBI and ED extracted some statements from the accused and have prima facie proved the angle of corruption in the dealings of the gang.
All these three agencies strongly feel that the DVAC should have pitched in by now and started an investigation in to the corruption angle. “All the evidences that prove the role of both politicians and bureaucrats are available with all the three agencies who are now investigating cases against these accused. However, DVAC has not so far sought any from any of these agencies,” an I-T official said.
None of the three agencies have the legal power to probe into the corruption charges against state government officials and political leaders. CBI’s ACB is involved only because they suspect the involvement of bank officials in bulk exchange of demonetised currencies. “We are ready to hand over all the relevant documents to the DVAC. But understandably, they have not shown any interest,” the I-T official added. DTNext ’s repeated attempts to contact the Director of DVAC went in vain.
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