The Enforcement Directorate, Chennai, has provisionally attached 30 kg of gold bars worth ₹8.56 crore of J Sekhar Reddy, Managing Partner of SRS Mining, and his associates in connection with fraudulent exchange of old notes to new currency notes.
The department attached the gold bars under the provision of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
After demonetisation, the Income-Tax department conducted searches at various places of Reddy,and seized about ₹97 crore of old currencies, ₹34 crore of new currencies and about 177 kg of gold bars.
Subsequently, CBI registered FIRs against Reddy and others for converting demonetised currencies into new currencies fraudulently. The Directorate of Enforcement is conducting investigation under PMLA against Reddy and others based on CBI cases registered against them in relation to such seizures.
Already about ₹34 crore of new currency seized was provisionally attached, says a release issued by KSVV Prasad, Joint Director, ED, Chennai.
During examination, Reddy stated that the cash seized by IT department belongs to his company, and admitted that it was unaccounted money. He did not divulge the actual source of new currencies other than stating that it is from the sand mining business, the release said.