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Ministers’ names found in Reddy’s papers seized by I-T
With the RK Nagar bypoll just around the corner, the ruling AIADMK seems to have been caught on the wrong foot with some of its ministers’ names appearing on the sheet of an alleged pay-off ledger book reportedly recovered by the Income-Tax department during their searches carried out a year ago from sand baron J Sekhar Reddy’s premises and his associates.
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Chennai
Incidentally, the name of Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam who held the PWD portfolio for many years in the late J Jayalalithaa-led cabinet was mentioned several times in the leaked papers besides ministers Vijaya Baskar and Thangamani. Names of several AIADMK functionaries, including former MLA VP Kalairajan, were found on the list.
It may be recalled that the government had to explain that a DVAC probe was on after a media leak on pay off linked to the gutkha scam involving some IPS officers and a state minister surfaced June this year.
The latest leak – believed to be a text of six pages, from the pay-off book seized during last December raids, reveals pay-outs to several state ministers, AIADMK functionaries and small political outfits between April and November last year.
The ledger was seized along with Rs 131 crore cash, including Rs 33.6 crore in new currency notes and 177 kg of gold by the Income-Tax department when it searched the premises connected to Reddy in 2016. When contacted, officials were not too forthcoming about the seizure of documents, now leaked to the media. Sources in the ED noted that such informal notes on payments, even though it existed, might not help investigating agencies greatly as it might not be able to prove anything using such scribbles.
It may be noted that the CBI, which probed the seizure of cash and gold by the I-T, had informed the court that they could not ascertain from where Reddy had accumulated Rs 33 crore worth new notes within a month after demonetisation, while Reddy insisted that it was legally earned money.
Reacting to the leaked documents, Sekhar Reddy, who was a contractor of PWD and Highways projects in Tamil Nadu, said he isn’t in the habit of writing notes on payments. “It is not my handwriting too. I don’t know whose diary it is,” he said.
As news spread, Panneerselvam on Friday abruptly cancelled his election campaign after the reporters kept asking him about the mining baron’s diary noting. “I can’t comment on an issue which I don’t know,” he said. DMK working president and Opposition leader MK Stalin sought a CBI probe into the alleged pay-outs and demanded resignation of all the ministers whose names were mentioned in the diary.
DMK for CBI probe into Reddy-Ministers link
Leader of Opposition MK Stalin on Friday reiterated that a CBI inquiry was necessary to bring out the truth behind the alleged nexus between sand mining baron Sekar Reddy and a few AIADMK Ministers.
Recalling his earlier demand on the issue that the ministers with alleged links with Sekar Reddy should demit office and the Governor should initiate action against them, Stalin said that his party had made such a demand immediately after the diary establishing the links between Reddy and the AIADMK ministers surfaced.
Speaking to reporters at DMK headquarters, he referred to the most recent report revealing the ministers-Reddy link. Stalin said, “I do not consider this as the latest news, because I have been pointing out from the beginning the nature of the ties Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam has with sand mining baron Sekar Reddy. The diary seized by Income Tax department during the raids showed evidence of eight ministers, including gutkha fame Vijaya Baskar reportedly being on the pay roll of Reddy.”
The DMK had demanded the resignation of the accused ministers and action against them by the then Governor, Stalin said and added, that the CBI should probe the matter to uncover the truth. When asked about OPS publicly denying links with Reddy and other ministers denying the existence of such a diary, Stalin dared the AIADMK bigwigs to file a case against the media for carrying the latest reports on the issue. On the alleged bribing of voters in poll bound R K Nagar, the LoP urged the Election Commission to initiate necessary action.
Mining Barons Record
- In December 2016, I-T officials raided the home and offices of mining baron Sekar Reddy and unearthed Rs 131 crore cash, including Rs 33.6 crore in new currency notes and 177 kg of gold.
- In March 2017, ED arrested Reddy and two associates in the money laundering case.
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