CHENNAI/HYDERABAD/BENGALURU : A total of Rs 90 crore has been siphoned out illegally to South East Asia and Hong Kong through eight shell companies in Chennai, sources in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told Express on Saturday.
They added that the premises of Galaxy Impex, Snowcity & Co, BK Electro Tools Products, Green International, Metal Tradus and Horizon Trading in Chennai had been searched.
The searches began around 9 am. “We have identified these shell companies from where money worth Rs 90 crore has gone out from Chennai alone,” a reliable source in the directorate said. “The searches are being conducted at places where we managed to locate the companies,” the source added.
Meanwhile in Hyderabad, the ED reportedly conducted raids on shell companies linked to Andhra Pradesh’s Leader of Opposition YS Jaganmohan Reddy. The agency’s official Twitter handle tweeted that it was conducting searches at shell companies linked to him, namely Rajeshwar Exports.
However, Reddy’s party’s media cell later issued statements saying that he had nothing to do with the said company and initiated legal action against media publications that had taken off from the tweet to allege his connection to the case.
More than Rs 3,500 crore was laundered through shell companies across the country during the November-December period after Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes were demonetised.