Hyderabad: The arrest of Sana Satish Babu by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in New Delhi is likely to open a Pandora’s box.
Not only had several bureaucrats cosied up to him, it is now suspected that Bollineni Srinivasa Gandhi, the former assistant director in the ED, who was booked by both the the CBI and the ED recently, was among those who had strong ties with Satish Babu.
Both the CBI and the ED which have registered cases against Gandhi for disproportionate assets and alleged money laundering, are now digging deep into the alleged nexus between the two.
Sources associated with the investigation told Deccan Chronicle that though Gandhi’s links with certain former TD leaders, who recently jumped ship to the BJP, were quite well known, the investigators suspect that Satish Babu is the common link between Gandhi and the former TD leaders. Satish Babu was said to be ruling the roost when the TD was in power in AP.
“There is some information to suggest that both were in regular touch and have met each other on several occasions. We are trying to connect the dots. We expect a lot of information to come out of Satish Babu during his questioning,” an official said.
Babu-Gandhi link under lens
While Satish Babu is into the real estate, Gandhi was also in the same business, the evidences for which the CBI is gathering.
During his long tenure as assistant director in the ED, from 2012 to early 2019, Gandhi worked on several high-profile cases including the Rs 300-crore tax evasion of the Sujana group, the Rs 100 crore demonetisation fraud involving Musaddilal jewellers and the alleged illegal investments case of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. It was suspected that Gandhi had reportedly colluded with some persons and leaked sensitive information about certain cases to them.
In 2017, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking removal of Gandhi for allegedly being partisan.
