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.
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.
--IANS
bha-fb/shs/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)