Innocent says Janardhan Reddy, cops say ‘no’

Hyderabad, Nov 11: The Bengaluru police grilled former minister, Janardhan Reddy late into the night in connection with a Ponzi scam. The police have accused him of accepting gratification to ensure that the Enforcement Directorate would go easy on the accused.

Reddy, during the questioning denied all allegations. Reddy said that he is ready to cooperate, but also added that all the charges made against him are false. Prior to appearing before the police, he had released a video in which he said that he was pained by the way in which the police were releasing false information to the media.

The police had said that Reddy and his assistant Ali Khan had received 57 kilograms in gold worth Rs 18 crore from Ambidant Marketing Pvt Ltd to negotiate with ED officials to go easy against its promoted Syed Ahmed Fareed. He is under the scanner of the ED for collect g deposits from the public by promising high returns.

The ED had slapped a penalty of Rs 1.86 crore on the firm for FEMA violations. On the basis of the information given by the Income Tax department, the ED's Bengaluru office had conducted searches at locations linked to the firm in January this year.

The ED said that several violations had come to light during the probe. It was found that there were FEMA violations such as forex trading to the tune of nearly 66,214 USD. Further the firm was also accused of opening accounts abroad by a resident Indian without the approval of the RBI. The ED on the basis of a response sought by the Bengaluru police also said that Ambident had approached Reddy to sort out the case being probed by the agency.