Why are bankers spared in Sekhar Reddy case: Madras high court to CBI

TNN | Updated: Oct 10, 2017, 06:04 IST

Madras high court

CHENNAI: Why CBI has not been able to hold inquiry with any bank official though its case is that a vast quantity of demonetised currencies was changed with the help of bank officials, and why no further arrests have happened, were some of the uneasy questions posed by the Madras high court to the central agency while hearing a plea filed by sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy and three others seeking to quash cases registered against them.

Moving the petition to quash the FIR, the accused including Reddy contended that though 10 months had lapsed since the case was filed by the CBI, no people other than the accused had been inquired or arrested by the agency. Also, citing the cases registered by CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), they argued that the Supreme Court had categorically said multiple cases could not be filed for same offences committed by the accused.

Recording the submissions, Justice G Jayachandran directed the agency to file a status report explaining the details of inquiries and arrests made since the registration of the case by October 25, and posted the plea to November 6 for further hearing.

In December 2016, income tax unearthed Rs 99 crore in demonetised currencies and another Rs 34 crore in new currencies, besides 127kg gold bars from the properties of Reddy and his associates.

On December 21, 2016 CBI arrested Reddy on charges of cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy. The agency filed a first information report against him, and his associates K Srinivasulu and Premkumar under charges of criminal conspiracy (IPC section 120b), criminal breach of trust (409) and cheating (420) and corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

LATEST COMMENT

Apart from the main accused like Sekar Reddy the fraud conversions during DM window period the fraud could not have happened without the collusion of Bank officials. Some body i in high in government... Read MoreGopalarathnam Krishna Prasad

The accused were also booked under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the Enforcement Directorate based on the FIR filed by the CBI. After allowing custodial interrogation by both the agencies, the court recently granted conditional bail to all the accused since the CBI could not file charge-sheet within the mandatory 90 days.

This apart, on May 5, the ED attached assets worth Rs 33.74 crore that income tax officers seized from Reddy under PMLA on the basis that the properties were proceeds of criminal activities. The directorate also established a link between Kolkata businessman Paras Mal Lodha and Reddy in the illegal conversion of demonetised notes.