Case against mining baron Shekhar Reddy, others transferred to another court

CHENNAI: The principal special court for CBI cases in Chennai on Tuesday transferred a case pertaining to seizure of Rs 34 crore new currency notes from mining baron J Shekhar Reddy and his associates to XI additional special court for CBI cases pertaining to bank fraud cases.
Last week, the court denied bail to Reddy and his associates V Srinivasalu, Dindigul Rathinam, Muthupettai Ramachandran and Prem Kumar.They were accused of converting the unaccounted cash held by them in old currency notes to new notes with the help of officials of different banks. The court had also rejected CBI’s plea for police custody.
When the accused were produced in the court on Tuesday, the CBI requested the court to transfer the cases to the court for bank fraud cases, following which judge G Vijayalakshmi transferred the cases.
Meanwhile, the CBI on Tuesday filed a new case against Reddy and his associates in the connection with seizure of Rs eight crore and Rs1.63 crore new 2000 Rs currency notes seized from Reddy’s houses in T Nagar. The CBI also named unknown bank officials and public servants as suspects in the case.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also filed a petition seeking prisoners transit warrant for Parasmal Lodha, who was arrested in Mumbai last week and is now in Delhi Prison. Lodha had allegedly converted the currency of Reddy into the new denomination notes. The judge issue the transit warrant to ED, following which the ED sleuths will now bring Lodha to Chennai and produce him before the court
Earlier, Income tax officials had also seized 127kg of gold and over Rs 170 crore in cash from the premises of Reddy and his associates. They were booked under sections 13(1) and (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). They are also facing charges for offences under IPC including criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy.