The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided multiple premises linked to Telangana revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy and some others on Friday as part of a money laundering case linked to an alleged smuggling racket of more than Rs 100 crore, official sources said.
ED officials arrived in the city from New Delhi and are conducting searches at 15 locations linked to the Revenue Minister and other individuals. It is learned that 15 teams are conducting searches simultaneously at the locations linked to the Minister.
The money laundering case stems from a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) complaint against Reddy’s son, Harsha Reddy of the Raghav Group, who is alleged to have purchased seven watches worth Rs 7 crore.
The payments for these are linked to an alleged hawala and crypto currency racket worth Rs 100 crore and a man named A Naveen Kumar is under the scanner of the ED. It may be recalled that during the period of recent elections ED conducted similar raids.
These searches are being conducted at Raghava Constructions and Infra offices. The company had recently secured one of the Narayanpet- Kodangal Lift Irrigation package works. The raid involves 15 teams which are conducting simultaneous raids at multiple locations, including Hyderabad and Khammam.
The locations include residences of the minister’s daughter, his farm house, his company directors and other relatives’ houses. The raids are reportedly operating under the protection of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel. It may be recalled that before Assembly elections when he had quit the ruling BRS, BJP tried severely to get him into the party and even union home minister Amit Shah personally called him. But, ultimately he joined Congress and became a key minister in Revanth Reddy’s cabinet.
It may be recalled that ED searches were conducted at the offices and houses of Congress MLA from Chennur G Vivek Venkat Swamy during the Assembly elections in November last. Similar raids were conducted at his brother and Bellampalli MLA G Vinod as well.
