CBI says no prosecutable evidence against Sekar Reddy, moves to close case

The national agency has filed a closure report in a trial court.
Sekar Reddy
Sekar Reddy
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Almost four years after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a First Information Report (FIR) against J Sekar alias Sekar Reddy, the national agency has filed a closure report on the case in a trial court. The report said that it couldn’t find anything incriminating against the accused and hence wants to close the case.

According to a report in The Hindu, the case relates to a seizure of Rs 33.89 crore in Rs 2,000 currency notes from the business premises of Sekar Reddy and his partners in SRS Mining Company in Vellore. The Income Tax department had conducted a search and seized the cash after the union government announced demonetisation of currency notes and had issued new currency notes in the Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 denominations. Following this, the CBI had registered three FIRs against the industrialist, who is also a member of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), and his partners in relation to the seizure.

Following this Sekar Reddy and four of his aides were arrested in December 2016. Sekar Reddy, who came out on bail, was again arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in March 2017. He was also removed from the TTD by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. However, he was reinstated to the TTD in 2019.

The CBI had accused Sekar Reddy and his partners of working with unknown bank employees to convert old demonetised notes to the new currency, thus depriving the public of new currency notes. The investigating agency had also accused bank officials of having colluded with Sekar Reddy and his partners.

The Madras High Court had earlier quashed two FIRs, directing the CBI to add all the information in the two FIRs to the third FIR and investigate. The CBI had examined several persons and looked at documents in the course of investigating the case and had reportedly found no evidence against the accused.

“As per the oral and documentary evidence, the allegations in the FIR to the effect that the accused persons have caused wrongful loss to the Government of India to the tune of approximately Rs 247.13 crore and obtaining corresponding wrongful gain to themselves is not substantiated with prosecutable evidence. Hence, the final report has been filed for recommending closure of the case,” The Hindu quoted from the closure report filed in the trial court. 

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