HYDERABAD: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has rejected the requests of former HMDA chief engineer BLN Reddy and senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar to give them more time to appear before it for questioning in connection with the alleged Formula-E race scam.
The probe agency has reportedly asked BLN Reddy and Arvind Kumar to appear before it on January 8 and 9 respectively.
Reddy, one of the three accused in the Formula E Race case, was originally summoned by ED on Thursday but he reportedly sent an e-mail to the Joint Director of ED, Hyderabad seeking two to three weeks to appear before it.
However, the agency asked him to appear before it on January 8.
Arvind Kumar, who was asked to appear before the ED on Friday, also sent an e-mail to the ED Joint Director seeking two weeks but the agency reportedly him to appear on January 9.
Interestingly, the ED summoned BRS working president and former minister KT Rama Rao on January 7 and it remains to be seen if he too will seek more time.
Meanwhile, sources revealed that the ED has also summoned the officials of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Himayathnagar branch. The officials are likely to be asked who directed them to transfer funds from the HMDA account out of India and whether any cheques were issued or any documents were provided to them, authorising the IOB to do the transfer money in foreign exchange.
The ED is investigating if there were any violations of the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the transfer of `55 crore in foreign exchange to Formula-E governing body to organise the E-Prix in Hyderabad in February, 2024 (which did not take place).
The agency registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) based on an FIR filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau.