BENGALURU: Mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, who had on Friday accused the state of targetting him in an investigation into an alleged Ponzi scam, appeared in the Central Crime Branch (CCB) office here.
He also surfaced in a video alongside his lawyer Chandrashekar RP on Saturday and said that news of his absconding from the city to avoid appearing before the CCB was false and that the sleuths had only sent him a summons on Friday asking him to appear on Sunday for questioning which he intended to follow.
In the video, Chandrashekar speaks on behalf of Reddy and says that the CCB was misleading the public and media by stating that Reddy was absconding.
"The CCB police did not mention Reddy's name in the FIR and did not try to contact him over the case till Friday. They have not shown any kind of evidence against him so far and have misled the media by saying that he is absconding. The police has acted in a biased manner and damaged my reputation," Chandrashekar says. The video was shot in an undisclosed location.
The lawyer then goes on to say that Reddy respects the police and the rule of law and accordingly would appear before the CCB with his legal counsel.
On Friday, a city court had declined to grant anticipatory bail to Reddy, accused of bribing an Enforcement Directorate official in a Ponzi scheme related case.
The CCB had launched a search for Reddy and according to his counsel, had even raided his residence in Bengaluru and Ballari in the past week.
In a statement, the ED had said that the promoters of Ambidant Marketing Ltd, had been charged with operating an illegal Ponzi scheme and duping hundreds of investors in the name of Islamic banking since its inception in December 2016.
Reddy is accused of having taken money from the promoters of the company to strike a deal with the Enforcement Directorate official to stop an investigation into the case.