CHENNAI: Parasmal Lodha, who allegedly helped sand mining baron J Shekar Reddy in converting demonetised currencies to Rs 2,000 currencies, has been added as sixth accused in the case by Central Bureau of Investigation.
Lodha, who was produced before the CBI court in Chennai after the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday procured a transit warrant from the judge, Principal Special Court for CBI cases, Venkataswamy, was remanded to judicial custody till January 19.
Interestingly, it was Enforcement Directorate, which had sought his custody before the CBI court for 10 days but could not get it due to legal technicalities.
CBI counsel M V Dinakar said Enforcement Directorate only filed a petition and not an affidavit which was mandatory under Criminal Rules of Practice of Tamil Nadu. Now Enforcement directorate has to file fresh petition along with affidavit before seeking Lodha’s custody.
The special court allowed CBI to add him as an accused in the case pertaining to seizure of Rs 24 crore, as the sixth accused along with Reddy, V Srinivasalu, Dindigul Rathinam, Muthupettai Ramachandran and auditor Prem Kumar and sought his custody for five days.
During the hearing, Lodha, 60, said the CBI and ED had filed a false case and “he had met Reddy twice in his life.”
Meanwhile, Enforcement directorate filed a petition seeking custody of Sekhar Reddy. “We will take his custody only after the two-day custody of CBI expires,” said ED sources.