ED attaches Rs 34 crore assets in Sekhar Reddy case

CHENNAI: The ED has attached assets worth about Rs 34 crore in connection with its money laundering probe against Tamil Nadu sand mining baron J Sekhar Reddy and his associates, registered post demonetisation.

The agency's zonal office here issued a provisional attachment order of "Rs 33,74,92,000 against Reddy and his associates in connection with exchange of old notes to new currency notes under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)," the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.

The ED, in March this year, had arrested Reddy and his two alleged associates K Sreenivasulu and P Kumar in this case.

Reddy was earlier arrested by the CBI too in the same case of alleged black money generation post demonetisation and was out on conditional bail.

The ED had filed a criminal complaint against Reddy and others based on a CBI FIR in the case which was registered after the I-T department first searched his premises and those of his associates in November last year.

The I-T department has made one of the biggest detection of alleged unaccounted income of over Rs 142 crore in this case with the seizure of Rs 34 crore in new notes, post demonetisation.

The Reddy case and the other involving Delhi-based lawyer Rohit Tandon are being probed by at least four agencies--the ED, the Income Tax department, the CBI and Delhi Police--and are considered the two most high-profile black money cases being investigated in the aftermath of the notes ban.