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The International News Weekly india
November 09, 2018 | Toronto 10
Janardhan Reddy under lens in
Rs 600cr investment fraud
Agencies
Bengaluru: Over
three decades after the
Hashimpura massacre in
Uttar Pradesh in which 38
Muslims were shot dead
in cold blood, the Delhi
High Court Wednesday
sentenced 16 former policemen
to life imprisonment,
holding it was a
"targeted killing" of "unarmed,
innocent and defenceless"
persons.
BJP leader and mining
baron G Janardhan
Reddy has come under
the police scanner for his
alleged role in “bailing
out” Syed Ahmed Fareed
in an Enforcement Directorate
(ED) case involving
a Rs 600 crore chain-link
investment fraud. Police
said preliminary investigations
had revealed that
Reddy and his assistant
Ali Khan received 57kg of
gold (worth Rs 18 crore)
from Fareed to “negotiate”
with ED officials.
Fareed and his son
Syed Ahmed Afaq are
accused of running Ambidant
Marketing and
duping thousands of investors
since December
2016.
Briefing reporters
here on Wednesday, city
police commissioner T
Suneel Kumar said: “The
crime branch had been
investigating the financial
transactions of Ambidant
Marketing Private
Limited following several
complaints from people
stating that they had been
cheated. We had seized
the bank accounts and
on scrutinising them, one
transaction pertaining to
payment of Rs 18 crore
raised suspicion. So we
decided to summon Janardhan
Reddy, Ali Khan
and others for questioning.”
Police carried out a
search at Reddy’s apartment
near Basaveshwara
Circle during the day and
seized a few documents.
Ambidant, which has
been operating from RT
Nagar, had collected money
from more than 15,000
people, most of them Muslims
who had been promised
returns on investment
“the Islamic way”.
The company offered
30-40% returns on investment.
While investors
were paid some profits
initially, the company began
playing truant within
a few months. Investors
lodged police complaints
and staged protests. The
ED raided the company in
January this year. “The
crime branch, led by IPS
officers Alok Kumar and
Girish S, started probing
the complaints against
Ambidant and arrested
Fareed,” said Kumar. “We
found that Rs 18 crore
had been transferred to a
bank account by the company.
On checking, we
learned that the money
had been transferred to
city-based gold bullion
trader Ramesh Kothari.
When questioned, Kothari
said he had received
instructions to hand over
57 kilograms of gold to Ramesh
of Rajmahal Fancy
Jewellers of Ballari. We
arrested Ramesh from
Ballari and he disclosed
that the gold was handed
over to Janardhan Reddy’s
assistant Ali Khan.”
Police formed four
special teams to trace
Khan and Reddy. “Fareed
claimed that he had paid
Reddy as he promised to
bail him out in the ED
case,” Kumar said. Police
said they found some incriminating
documents,
including photographs
pertaining to a meeting
involving Reddy, Fareed
and Afaq. The meeting
reportedly took place in a
star hotel on Race Course
Road in March and was
facilitated by a city-based
builder.
CBI vs CBI: Verma meets CVC, refutes
corruption charges levelled by Asthana
Agencies
New Delhi: CBI Director
Alok Verma on Thursday
met Central Vigilance
Commissioner K V
Chowdary and denied corruption
charges levelled
against him by his deputy
and special director in the
probe agency Rakesh Asthana,
officials said.
Verma came to the
CVC office in the late afternoon
and stayed there for
about two hours, they said.
He met Chowdary and
Vigilance Commissioner
Sharad Kumar, the officials
said, without giving
any other details.
The Supreme Court
had on October 26 asked
the Central Vigilance Commission
to complete within
two weeks its inquiry into
allegations against Verma
levelled by Asthana.
Verma and Asthana
have been sent on leave by
the government.
Officials said Asthana
also met the CVC.
The Commission had
recently examined some
CBI officials probing crucial
cases which figured in
Asthana's complaint of corruption
against the probe
agency's chief Verma, they
said. The officials said CBI
personnel from the rank of
inspector up to superintendent
of police were called
and their versions recorded
before a senior CVC official.
These officials, who
had recorded their statements
included those who
had handled the Moin
Qureshi bribery case, the
IRCTC scam, involving
former railway minister
Lalu Prasad, the cattle
smuggling case in which
a senior BSF officer was
caught with wands of cash
in Kerala.
The Supreme Court
had directed that the
CVC's inquiry into the allegations
against Verma,
who has challenged the
government's decision divesting
him of his duties
and sending him on leave,
would be conducted under
the supervision of retired
apex court judge Justice A
K Patnaik and this was a
"one-time exception".
The feud between Verma
and Asthana escalated
recently leading to registration
of an FIR against
the latter and others, including
Deputy Superintendent
of Police Devender
Kumar, who is in CBI custody
in an alleged bribery
case.
The CBI had on October
15 registered the FIR
against Asthana for allegedly
receiving a bribe of Rs
2 crore from Hyderabadbased
businessman Sana
Sathish Babu which was
given through two middlemen
Manoj Prasad and
Somesh Prasad to sabotage
the probe against meat exporter
Moin Qureshi.
On August 24, Asthana,
in his complaint to
the Cabinet Secretary, had
levelled allegations against
Verma that he got a bribe
of Rs two crore from Sana
to help him get some relief
from questioning in the
matter.
Note ban a conspiracy, money laundering scheme: Rahul
New Delhi : Attacking Narendra Modi on the second anniversary of demonetisation,
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday called the note ban
a "cruel conspiracy" and a "scam".
“Note ban was a planned and cruel conspiracy. This scam was a scheme
to launder black money of the Prime Minister's cronies,” Gandhi tweeted in
Hindi.
“There was nothing innocent in this scandal. Finding any other meaning
to this is an insult to the nation's intelligence,” he added.
Financial powers of vice
chiefs of armed forces
enhanced by 5 times
New Delhi : The Defence Ministry has enhanced
the financial powers of the three vice
chiefs of the armed forces by five times, giving
a fillip to procurement of arms and ammunition
and upgrade of defence preparedness.
In March, the vice chiefs were granted additional
powers to carry out specific procurement
to ensure operational preparedness.
"The ministry has enhanced the financial
powers of the three vice chiefs from Rs 100 crore
to Rs 500 crore, thus effecting a five-time increase
for augmenting procurement of arms and ammunition
and upgrade of defence preparedness,"
Defence Ministry Spokesperson Col Aman Anand
told reporters on Thursday.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has
taken this important decision to augment the
arms and ammunition reserves, the ministry
said in a release.
A number of initiatives have been taken by
the Defence Ministry in the recent past to simplify
and streamline the procedures and decentralise
the decision-making through delegation of
powers.