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Friday 5 October 2012

ED to attach Jagan, aides’ properties worth `51 crore

cleanmediatoday.com


ED to attach Jagan, aides’ properties worth `51 crore
Clean Media Today

New Delhi, Oct 05 (CMC) The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday issued an order to attach assets worth `51 crore of YSR Congress chief and Kadapa MP Jagan Mohan Reddy and his associates in a case of money laundering.

The agency has attached more than 13 acres of land of Janani Infrastructure Pvt Ltd and fixed deposits to the tune of `14.50 crore of Jagati Publication Ltd that publishes Sakshi daily. Both Janani Infrastructure and Jagati Publication are owned by Jagan.

The attachment orders came as the agency suspects these properties and bank deposits were received allegedly as kickbacks for the favours granted by Jagan during his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s tenure as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

The attachment order, issued under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA), was also against companies that illegally benefited as a result of “criminal activity and illegal sanctions” granted during YSR’s rule.

The other properties attached by the agency are 35 acres of land and fixed deposit of `3 crore of Hetero Drugs Ltd, 96 acres of land of APL Research Centre Limited, a fully-owned subsidiary of Aurobindo Pharma Ltd along with its fixed deposit of `3 crore.

The attachment order said Hetero Drugs and Aurobindo Pharma derived illegal benefit each of `8.60 crore from allotment of 75 acres of land each to these companies by the Andhra Government.

These companies were allotted land at a lower value than prescribed by the price fixation committee of the Government. “These allotments of lands were done illegally by the State Government at a lower rate than the rate fixed by the price fixation committee,” the agency said, according to the ED orders for attachment.

Jagan is presently undergoing judicial custody at a jail in Hyderabad in a CBI case relating to alleged cheating and corruption. Money laundering probe against Jagan was initiated after the CBI probe revealed that money was laundered into Jagan’s firms as a quid pro quo of favours granted by the State Government during YSR’s tenure.

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