There is more trouble in store for Gali Janardhana Reddy with the Central Crime Branch in Bengaluru having launched a lookout for the tainted mining baron in connection with a ponzi scheme. According to TV reports on Wednesday, police teams have also left for Delhi and Hyderabad after Janardhana Reddy went incommunicado. Police are also on the lookout for his aide Ali Khan, who is also involved in the case of financial fraud.
According to a section of media, the legal team hired by Janardhana Reddy has filed an anticipatory bail petition at the Hyderabad High Court. Reacting to the developments, Janardhana’s close aide and BJP MLA Sriramulu said, “I came to know about the incident on media. I have no information on this. Law will take its course, nobody is above law.”
The mining baron’s involvement was discovered while the police were interrogating Syed Ahmed Fareed, the proprietor of Ambidant company which allegedly ran a ponzi scheme in the name of chain link marketing company.
Police claimed they found a photo in Fareed’s phone which showed Janardhana Reddy, Ali sitting with Fareed and his son in a hotel room. The police allege that the photo was taken following a deal which took place at Taj West End hotel in Bengaluru in March, 2018.
Police are also on the lookout for Fareed’s son Ahmed Afaq. According to investigators, the company has duped people of Rs 200 crore. Police has started investigation after close to 500 duped investors held a protest in Freedom Park in November 2017.
Later in the afternoon at a press conference, T Suneel Kumar, police commissioner of Bengaluru, said, "Fareed has said he approached Reddy for relief from ED. We will not spare those involved. More people are involved in the the scam. In the media we have seen that they have got anticipatory bail but we will have to verify it. We are carrying out invstiations in tandem with ED."
The ‘deal’
Ambidant was raided by officials of the Income Tax Department and later the Enforcement Directorate in 2017. According to police, Farid had approached Janardhana through Ali to get away from the central agencies. Janardhana allegedly agreed to a sum of Rs 21 crore and allegedly bribed an Enforcement Directorate official identified as Brijesh with Rs 1 crore to prevent action from the authorities, News9 reported.
As part of the arrangement, Fareed was supposed to give 57 gold bars to Janardhana Reddy’s Enable India company and Ramesh, one jeweller from Ballari was reportedly assigned the task of creating fake bills. Ramesh is also currently in custody.