Jagan case: Court freezes Rs 34 crore FDs of his media firm
Special court issues orders for attachment of fixed deposits of Jagati Publication.
New Delhi: A special PMLA court here has issued orders for attachment of fixed deposits worth over Rs 34 crore of a media firm owned by YSR Congress leader Jagan Mohan Reddy, identifying them as 'proceeds of crime of money laundering'.
The order of the Adjudicating Authority of the anti-money laundering Act came after the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in May this year, had issued attachment orders on the fixed deposits with a total value of Rs 34.66 crore.
These FDs were allegedly kept in the Jubilee Hill branch of Oriental Bank of Commerce in Hyderabad in the name of Jagati Publication Limited, a firm owned by the Member of Parliament (MP) from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.
"On a thorough perusal of the order of the honourable High Court, the FIR and the charge sheet of the CBI, investigations conducted by the ED and the statements recorded under section 50 of the PMLA and on careful consideration of the arguments advanced on behalf of the complainant (ED) and the defendants (Jagati Publication), we come to the prima facie conclusion that the defendants have committed the scheduled offences, generated proceeds of crime and laundered them."
"No doubt the properties attached are 'proceeds of crime' or 'value thereof' and are involved in money laundering. We, therefore, order confirmation of the provisional attachment order," the bench of Authority K. Raamamoorthy (Chairman) and Mukesh Kumar (Member) said in its latest order.
An ED attachment, under the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is an action meant to deprive the accused of properties sourced out of illegal means or through proceeds of crime and the authentication by the Authority, a judicial body, confirms the enforcement action. Jagan, who was arrested over a year ago, is at present out on bail.
The instances pertain to the tenure of Jagan's father and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who died in a helicopter crash in 2009.
The agency is probing the case on the basis of the FIR filed by CBI to investigate alleged disproportionate assets amassed by Jagan especially during the tenure of his father as CM. The agency has earlier issued three separate attachment orders of Rs 51 crore, Rs 71 crore and Rs 143.74 crore in this case.