Hyderabad: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Saturday conducted searches at the residence and offices of former Union Minister and TDP MP Y.S. Chowdary here for alleged financial irregularities.
The searches, which began late Friday, continued on Saturday. The officials checked the records, computers and laptops at the offices of the Sujana Group owned by Chowdary.
The officials conducted simultaneous searches at the offices of Splendid Metal Products Ltd and Sujana Universal Industries and also the head office and residence of Chowdary.
The searches, the second in less than a month, were in connection with a case booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Best & Crompton Engineering Project Limited, a company owned by Srinivas Kalyan Rao, son of former CBI Director Vijaya Rama Rao.the
ED officials have conducted raids on Sujana Group companies based in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru and detected embezzlement of funds. The ED sleuths also detected that some 120 bogus companies were running under Sujana Group. They also seized five costly cars. They also seized from his Hyderabad office some 126 rubber stamps pertaining to shell companies.
Kalyan Rao was accused of cheating nationalised banks to the tune of Rs304 crore and diverting funds to shell companies.
The ED began the probe into allegations that the shell companies had links with firms owned by Chowdary.
Agency officials had also conducted searches at Chowdary’s residence and offices last month.
Chowdary, a member of the Rajya Sabha, is a close aide of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Chowdary was Minister of Science and Technology in the Narendra Modi Cabinet till March when the TDP pulled out of the BJP-led NDA.
Saturday’s raids come just days after the Andhra Pradesh government withdrew the “general consent” it had earlier given to the CBI to operate within its territory.
The CBI now requires the permission of the Andhra Pradesh government to conduct raids in the state.
The move had come following a series of raids by the Income Tax authorities against TDP leaders including Naidu’s close aide and MP C.M. Ramesh.
The party leaders alleged that the Modi government was misusing central agencies to target them.
(inputs from IANS and NSS)
