CHENNAI: Fifty kg of gold bars, worth `14 crore, which were allegedly bought using unaccounted cash earned through sand mining by J Sekhar Reddy and his aides, has been attached by Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The gold bars, which were seized by Income Tax (I-T) Department from a flat belonging to SRS Mining during raids conducted at various premises of Reddy and his aides, were attached in connection with the investigation carried out by Enforcement Directorate. An FIR was registered against him by the CBI, pertaining to exchange of demonetised notes, according to Joint Director of Enforcement Directorate K S V V Prasad.
A total of `97 crore worth demonetised currencies, `34 crore worth new currencies and 177 kg of gold bars were seized by I-T Department, following which CBI registered FIRs against Reddy, his aides and his partners in SRS Mining.
During investigation it was found that the unaccounted cash from SRS Mining was used to buy gold bars. It is alleged that SRS Mining obtained sand from the government mines at cheaper rate and did the second sales at stackyard without any receipts, thus avoiding value added tax and other levy due to the government.
A part of such unaccounted money was converted into gold bars through Sekhar Reddy’s auditor Premkumar.
“Premkumar used to receive money from Reddy’s aide Srinivasulu for purchasing gold bars. From November 20 to December 7, 2016, Premkumar purchased about 80 kg gold by cash from various persons on behalf of K Srinivasulu. He said no bills or vouchers were maintained by him for procuring the gold,” said Prasad.
“Once, part of the cash is converted into gold, the remaining cash was kept at various premises and the same was recovered and seized by Income Tax department. Srinivasulu, in his further statement, on June 9, with regard to seizure of about 49.480 kg of gold from premises of SRS mining, has stated that the same was procured through Premkumar, paying the money received from partners of SRS Mining,” said Prasad.