CHENNAI: The Chennai zone of Enforcement Directorate on Thursday launched searches at 10 locations in Chennai and Hyderabad linked to GRK Reddy, chairman of the MARG group, which has interests in realty, port infrastructure, IT, and education. The current searches pertain to a money laundering probe initiated by ED based on a Rs 200-crore bank fraud investigation registered by the CBI against the accused in the ‘New Chennai Township’ case, sources said.
According to ED sources, the Income tax department in 2020 passed orders that identified the MARG group as a benami of VK Sasikala, close aide of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, as she paid them around Rs 115 crore in Old High Denomination Notes (OHD) during the period of demonetisation. Income tax sleuths had based this on documents seized from properties linked to Sasikala during searches in 2017, sources said.
Group companies MARG Realities, MARG Capital Markets and MARG Projects and Infrastructure were identified as “benamidars” of the ultimate beneficial owner VK Sasikala by the Income Tax department, sources said. However, sources noted that Sasikala is not an accused in the CBI case.
This is the second recent instance of central agencies shifting their focus on the benamis of Sasikala; in August, CBI searched the directors of Padmaadevi Sugars in a bank fraud case. They were also identified as Sasikala’s benamis after she was found to have bought the company by paying Rs 450 crore in OHD during the period of demonetisation.