A city court on Friday declined to grant anticipatory bail to Karnatakaa’s mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, who fears arrest by the state’s Central Crime Branch (CCB) in a Ponzi scheme-related case.

“Additional Sessions Court Judge Vidyadara Shirahatti said he cannot grant anticipatory bail to my client (Reddy) without hearing the prosecution side and adjourned the case to Monday (November 13),” Reddy’s senior counsel C.H. Hanumantharaya told reporters here.

Though the CCB summoned Reddy for interrogation in the Ponzi scam, in which he is accused of shielding its perpetrators from being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Hanumantharaya alleged that the CCB had wrongly framed his client in the case, as his (Reddy’s) name was not in the FIR filed against Ambidant Marketing Ltd suspected to be behind the scam.

When the judge asked the counsel the urgency in seeking anticipatory bail as Reddy was legally bound to appear before the CCB in response to its summons, the counsel said the police was searching for Reddy and raided his residence in the city and Ballari on Wednesday and Thursday in connection with the scam.

Reddy, a former BJP Minister in the state, is on bail in the multi-crore mining scam that rocked the southern state for over a decade from 2002-12.

“The judge has issued notice to the prosecutor for filing objections, if any, against Reddy’s petition for anticipatory bail,” said his counsel.

Reddy’s counsel also sought a court directive to the CCB for changing the investigation officers, as the Ponzi case does not come under their jurisdiction.

The ED on Thursday charged Ambidant owners Syed Fareed Ahmed and his son Syed Afaq Ahmed with running a potential Ponzi scheme offering huge interest to investors in the name of ‘Islamic banking’.

“Investigation revealed that the city-based Ambidant Marketing Ltd has been operating a potential Ponzi scheme and duping hundreds of investors in the name of Islamic banking and ‘Halal’ investment,” the ED said in a statement here.

Since its inception on December 20, 2016, the company is alleged to have received a whopping Rs 954 crore as investments under Haj/Umrah and Ultimate plans.

Interrogation of the Ahmeds (father and son) revealed that the duo had allegedly gifted Reddy 57 kg gold valued at Rs 18 crore through his personal assistant Ali Khan for bailing them out of the cases from the police and the ED.

A woman and her husband were allegedly hacked to death at a village in Pune district of Maharashtra on the suspicion that she was practising black magic, police said on Friday.

The incident took place on Thursday at Aundhe village, around 50 kms from here and the victims were identified as Lilabai Mukane (47) and her husband Navasu Mukane (55), police said.

Two persons, identified as Jaitu Borkar and Baban Mukane, were arrested by Khed police in this connection, they said.

According to a police officer, the deceased woman was a quack, but some people in the village, located in Khed tehsil, suspected that she was practising black magic.

“A few days ago, Borkar’s daughter had developed cyst in her abdomen. Borkar suspected that it due to the black magic done by Lilabai,” a senior officer at Khed police station said.

“Baban’s wife had also developed some rashes on her body and even he suspected that it was due to Lilabai’s black magic,” he added.

According to the officer, on Thursday both the accused stormed into Mukane’s house with sticks and sharp weapons and attacked Lilabai.

“When her husband came to save her, they also hacked him to death with sharp weapons,” he added.

After some of their neighbours found the couple lying in a pool of blood, they alerted the police.

“During the probe, Lilabai’s daughter told us that in the past her mother had arguments with Borkar. Based on the inputs, he was picked up for questioning. During his interrogation, he spilled the beans and confessed to killing the couple with the help of Baban,” he added.

A case under section 302 (murder) has been registered against the duo, police said.

Mining Baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, who has been accused of bribing an Enforcement Directorate official, has now petitioned the Karnataka High Court, requesting it to quash the FIR registered against him.

Janardhana Reddy’s lawyers have also petitioned the sessions court in Bengaluru for an anticipatory bail, two days after the Central Crime Branch sleuths in the city launched a manhunt for him.

The petition filed by Janardhana Reddy’s lawyer RP Chandrashekar with the High Court states that Reddy has been “deliberately framed” and that he had no role in the money laundering and bribery case registered against him.

“Janaradhana Reddy has been framed and the police officials have deliberately accused him of receiving gold bullion from Ambidant Marketing Pvt Ltd. Janardhana Reddy was not involved in any money laundering with Ambidant and he has not profited from any transaction with the company. The CCB has registered false charges against Janardhana Reddy,” the petition states.

The mining baron’s lawyer also accused the CCB sleuths of going after Janardhana Reddy for political gains and requested the court that the FIR be quashed and the investigating officers in the case be changed.

“The police officers investigating the case have indulged in partisan politics. The investigating officers CP Ganesh and ACP Venkatesh Prasanna must be removed from the case,” the petition adds.

Soon after the petition was filed at the Karnataka High Court, Reddy’s lawyers moved the Bengaluru sessions court at around 11.30 am seeking anticipatory bail for Janardhana Reddy.

The CCB sleuths, however, filed objection to Reddy’s bail application stating that the former Minister was directly involved in the money laundering and bribery case. The officials also stated that they have proof of such transactions.

Crime Branch sleuths have formed four teams to search for Janardhana Reddy. According to police sources, Janardhana Reddy made several phone calls from three different mobile phones to Hyderabad and a region in the Karnataka-Telangana border.

One of the teams, which received a tip off that Reddy was at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad rushed to the city. Police sources say that Reddy had absconded by the time the officers reached Banjara Hills.

The police also raided the residence of Reddy’s personal assistant Mehfuz Ali Khan’s residence in Bengaluru’s RT Nagar on Thursday. The officials also searched Also Reddy’s flat in Parijata Apartments near Chalukya Circle. The officers seized several documents from his Bengaluru residence on Thursday evening.

One of the teams, raided Reddy’s mansion in Ballari. Soon after the sleuths arrived, Molakalmuru MLA and Reddy’s long-time loyalist B Sreeramulu arrived at Reddy’s mansion. Around 3.15pm, they left for Reddy’s Obulapuram Mining Corporation office and also carried out a search operation there.

The police have accused Gali Janardhana Reddy of taking Rs 20 crore from the owner of Ambidant Marketing Pvt Ltd Syed Ahmed Fareed in order to strike a deal with Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials to drop the case against they were investigating against Ambidant.

A CCB source told media that Syed Ahmed Fareed allegedly confessed to giving Janardhana Reddy Rs 20 crore, of which Rs 2 crore in cash and 57 kg of gold bullion worth Rs 18 crore by laundering it through two jewellery firms.

The source said that Syed Fareed was under the police lens for allegedly cheating hundreds of investors after promising them massive returns and then reneged.

CCB sources say that since the transaction happened in March 2018, Janardhana Reddy could have used converted the gold to cash for funding the state Assembly elections. “Unless we question him, it will not be clear as to what happened to the 57 kg gold bullion. After the transaction in March, he has funded the Assembly elections and also the bye-polls in Ballari. We don’yt know if he is in possession with the gold or if her used it for the election,” the source added.

TNM

A woman died after she was allegedly raped by three men, including her former husband, and a stick was inserted in her private parts in Jamtara district of Jharkhand, police said on Thursday.

Senior Police officer B N Singh said the woman’s ex-husband has been arrested a search is on to arrest the two others.

According to police, the woman had gone to watch a play at a theatre on Kali Puja on Wednesday night. Her former husband and two of his associates forcibly took her to a field in the village. After raping her, they inserted a stick in her private parts, police said.

On hearing the woman’s cries for help the next morning, villagers took her to a hospital in Narayanpur town from where she was referred to Jamtara Sadar Hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead.

Locals told police that she had accused her former husband and the other two men of raping her when they had found her in the field.

PTI

Two people were arrested on Friday in connection with the murder attempt on a women’s rights activist and two other persons in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district, police said.

The suspects, Elphon Dkhar and Meklison Siangshai, were arrested in Kongong area in a pre-dawn raid.

“A suo moto case was taken up by police since the victims are not in position to file an FIR as they are in a serious condition. We are interrogating the two arrested persons and a manhunt is on to arrest the other attackers,” Sylvester Nongtnnger, the police chief of East Jaintia Hills, told IANS.

Meanwhile, officials at the North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) said that the activist, Agnes Kharshiing, was still in a “critical condition” while the other two persons — her aide Amita Sangma and their driver E. Kurbah — were stable.

“Kharshiing is on ventilator. The condition of the other two is stable,” NEIGRIHMS Spokesperson, K.K.Pandita said.

On Thursday, Kharshiing, who is also the President of Civil Society Women’s Organisation (CSWO), alongwith Sangma and Kurbah were brutally assaulted by a group of some 40 people after the activist lodged a complaint on the illegal mining and transportation of coal in the district.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had ordered an interim ban on “rat-hole” coal mining in Meghalaya from April 17, 2014, after the All Dimasa Students’ Union and the Dima Hasao District Committee filed an application before it alleging that the water of the Kopili river was turning acidic due to coal mining in the Jaintia Hills.

Meanwhile, several political and non-governmental organisation leaders have condemned the attack on Kharshiing and her aides.

“I condemn the attack on Kong Agnes Kharshiing and Amita Sangma, the other member of the CSWO, today by criminals in the strongest terms possible and pray for her complete recovery. I urge the authorities to waste no time and ensure the arrest of the criminals and their prosecution as per the law,” Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma said.

Former Meghalaya Home Minister Robert Garnett Lyngdoh said the attack on Kharshiing shows the “seriousness of the illegal mining of coal in Jaintia Hills”.

Civil group Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR) said: “This cowardly attack on one of the leading anti corruption human rights activist of Meghalaya clearly points to the impunity with which mafias are operating in the state under political patronage.”

The attack on Kharshiing was the second such incident on a social activist in the district.

On March 19, RTI activist Poipynhun Majaw, who was the president of the Jaintia Youth Federation, was found murdered in Khliehriat, the district headquarters of East Jaintia Hills.

The police have pieced together a paper trail of the money laundering operations and have also procured confessions.

A day after mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy was accused of being involved in a ponzi scam, the Central Crime Branch sleuths investigating the case have raided his mansion in Ballari.

A team of Bengaluru CCB officers reached Ballari on Thursday morning and began searching Janardhana Reddy’s home.

The search operation comes a day after he was accused in a money laundering case. The police have accused Gali Janardhana Reddy of taking Rs 20 crore from the owner of Ambidant Marketing Pvt Ltd Syed Ahmed Fareed in order to strike a deal with Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials to drop the case against they were investigating against Ambidant.

A lookout notice for Reddy was also issued in all airports and harbours as there are suspicions of the Ballari strongman leaving the country.

A CCB source told media that Syed Ahmed Fareed allegedly confessed to giving Janardhana Reddy Rs 20 crore, of which Rs 2 crore in cash and 57 kg of gold bullion worth Rs 18 crore by laundering it through two jewellery firms.

The source said that Syed Fareed was under the police lens for allegedly cheating hundreds of investors after promising them massive returns and then reneged. “It was during his interrogation that Syed confessed to ADGP Alok Kumar, who learnt that he had paid Janardhana Reddy. The CCB officers are now looking for the gold and hence they are searching Reddy’s house in Ballari,” the source added.

The Bengaluru Central Crime Branch has formed four special teams to look for Janardhana Reddy, who went incommunicado on Wednesday.

How did Janardhana Reddy’s name appear in the scam?

The CCB source said that over a fortnight ago, ADGP Alok Kumar was put in-charge of probing Ambidant’s alleged money laundering case. “Initially, all we knew was that the founder of Ambidant had cheated many people of at least Rs 200 crore. After an FIR was registered, Fareed was called in for questioning. Fareed confessed to cheating the people and promised to return all the money. He told ADGP Alok that he had rich friends who would help him,” the source said.

CCB sources say that Fareed was adamant about keeping the names of his alleged “rich associates” secret. When the CCB sleuths pressed him for details after further investigation, he revealed the name of Ali Khan, a close associate of Janardhana Reddy.

“ADGP Alok Kumar was also taken aback as much as other officers. He immediately informed Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. The bye-elections were in progress. Hence, the information was not made public and Reddy’s arrest was put on hold as the incident would have be politicised. However, information of Ali Khan’s possible arrest was leaked and he applied for anticipatory bail and Reddy was able to abscond,” the source added.

Who is Syed Fareed?

Syed Fareed is the founder of Ambidant company in Bengaluru, which duped thousands of people with the promise of bountiful returns. The total scam has been pegged by city crime branch at around Rs 600 crore and a total of 21 cases have been filed since 2017.

Much before Fareed courted arrest with city police, the company was raided by the Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate. After his property was attached, Fareed had approached Ali Khan, an associate of Reddy.

Police also confirmed media reports which said Fareed with his son Ashfaq had met Ali and Reddy at the Taj West End in Bengaluru hotel in March and the ‘deal’ was done to “settle the case.”

How police found the Reddy angle?

In November 2017, three cases of fraud were registered against Ambidant Marketing Pvt. Ltd. in the DJ Halli police station. The case was subsequently handed over to the CCB in mid-October this year. It was while going through the company’s financial records that the police discovered the transactions.

The CCB came across various bank accounts and transactions. However, one transaction of Rs 18 crore stood out. Up on investigation, it was was found that the account was linked to a Bengaluru-based jeweller Ramesh Kothari, owner of Ambika Sales Corporation. Kothari’s questioning revealed the name of another city-based jeweller Ramesh, who runs Rajmahal Fancy Jewellers to be involved in the transaction.

Up on following the money trail, it became evident that gold bars had reached Ali Khan. It was after this that Fareed was questioned about his alleged “rich friends.” The interrogation revealed that Fareed and Reddy met through Ali Khan and the first meeting was set up by a realtor from HSR Layout Brijesh Reddy.

“Last week, Ramesh was arrested. He confessed to delivering the gold to Mehfuz Ali Khan, the personal assistant of Janardhana Reddy in Ballari,” the CCB source said.

The CCB sleuths have also recovered six vouchers of Ambika Sales Corporation, which allegedly is proof of the sale of 57 kg gold bullion signed by Syed Fareed, who had transferred the Rs 18 crore to the firm.

Syed Fareed, who is also in CCB custody, has allegedly confessed to meeting Janardhana Reddy in March this year at a posh Bengaluru hotel and paid him to allegedly ensure that the Enforcement Directorate drops the probe against Fareed.

The CCB sleuths have recovered 21 photographs from Fareed’s phone of the meeting in Taj West End. “The photographs are geo-tagged and the time and date has also been recorded,” the source said.

TNM

 A Gujarat court on Thursday declared fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi as a “proclaimed absconder” in a Rs 52 crore customs duty evasion case filed in March and ordered him to appear in court on November 15.

A public notification issued to various Maharashtra and Gujarat newspapers, and sent to government and police departments, referred to Nirav Modi as a proclaimed absconder under Section 82 of the Criminal Procedure Code that could make it difficult for him to secure an anticipatory bail.

In Surat, Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) B.H. Kapadia accepting an August 8 plea by the Customs Department asked the diamantaire, who is also the prime accused in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank fraud case, to appear before the court next Thursday.

Deputy Customs Commissioner R.K. Tiwary had filed the August petition against Nirav Modi and his firms — Firestar Diamond International Pvt Ltd, Firestar International Pvt Ltd, and Radashir Jewellery Co Pvt Ltd — that involved a dispute over “huge tax amount”.

The diamond merchant and his firms had imported high-value rough and unpolished diamonds around 2014 and taken advantage of a government scheme allowing waiver of import duties if the raw materials were intended for export after processing in the Surat Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

However, after cutting and polishing, the firms allegedly sold those high-value stones worth around Rs 900 crore in the domestic markets and evaded customs duties of around Rs 52 crore, as detected by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Mumbai.

Apart from this, Nirav Modi also exported low-quality diamonds to various countries like Dubai, Hong Kong, Canada and the US, passing them off as processed high quality diamonds. Following this he was summoned by the court.

When he did not appear, an arrest warrant was issued against him on June 22.

However, all efforts by the department to execute the warrant failed as the diamond merchant was in hiding. His homes and offices were locked for long, and he had left the country, Public Prosecutor N.L. Sukhadwala told the court.

In its affidavit on October 9, the Customs Department said it had emailed copies of the arrest warrants to three IDs, and it was delivered to one of them, but was ignored by the user.

“Nirav Modi has knowledge about this warrant, yet he is absconding” trying to show that the warrant could not be executed, said CJM Kapadia, declaring the diamond merchant a “proclaimed absconder”.

IANS

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Thursday conducted raids at the Ballari and Bengaluru residence of mining baron Janardhan, in connection with a money transaction worth crores of rupees allegedly linked to a Ponzi scheme and seized some documents.

Simultaneous raid was also conducted at the Bengaluru residence of Ali Khan, personal assistant of Reddy.

Sayed Fareed, owner of Ambident Pvt Ltd who is currently under police custody is said to have shared some important information with regard to the illegal exchange of demonetized currency notes, said sources.

The Delhi Police has seized over 3,500 kg of firecrackers from various parts of the city since October 23 and arrested 26 persons for storing them without a license.

The police have also registered 29 cases following the Supreme Court order on the sale of old firecrackers, a senior police official said Monday.

Two days before Diwali, the national capital recorded its worst air quality of the season on Monday, with the pollution levels inching towards “severe plus emergency” category due to a change in wind direction and rampant stubble burning in neighbouring states.

Authorities predict the air quality to worsen during Diwali as they say burning firecrackers will spike air pollution to ‘very severe’ levels.

According to police, 3,847 kgs of firecrackers have been seized from various parts of the city.

The police seized 1,045 kg firecrackers from Shahdara, 1,688 kg from west Delhi, 659 kgs from north Delhi, 227 kgs from east Delhi, 72 kg from south-east Delhi, 96 packets from outer Delhi, 54 kg from northeast Delhi, 37 kgs from Dwarka and 64 kg of firecrackers from Delhi’s southwest district so far.

In total, 29 cases have been registered and 26 persons were arrested for storing firecrackers without a licence, a senior police official said.

Giving details, the police official said out of the 29 cases registered, three cases were filed in east Delhi and three persons were arrested, while five cases were registered in northeast Delhi and five persons were arrested.

Further elaborating, the official said two cases were registered in Shahdara in which three persons were arrested, while three cases were registered in north Delhi in which three persons were arrested.

While in southeast Delhi, three cases were registered and one person was arrested.

In west Delhi, eight cases were registered and eight persons were arrested.

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday said that it has arrested from Kolkata a director of a shell company of fugitive diamentaire Mehul Choksi in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

“We have arrested Deepak Krishna Rao Kulkarni from Kolkata Airport on the basis of a Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against him late on Monday,” a senior ED official told IANS.

Kulkarni, who was coming from Hong Kong was detained at the airport by the ED officials in Kolkata who then took him to their office.

They would seek a transit remand of Kulkarni as the PNB fraud case is registered in Mumbai.

Kulkarni was director of one of the dummy companies of the Gitanjali Group owner in Hong Kong, the financial-probe agency official said. He was also made an accused in the charge sheet filed against Choksi and a non-bailable warrant was issued against him.

Choksi and Nirav Modi are under probe by both the Central Bureau of Investigation and the ED. The ED filed money laundering cases against them and others on February 15 on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI.

The ED had on May 24 and May 26 filed charge sheets against the two.

While an Interpol issued Red Corner Notice (RCN) is on against Nirav Modi, his kin and associates.

The RCN request against Choksi, who acquired Antiguan citizenship earlier in 2018, is pending with the Interpol.