Gangula Kamalakar is the MLA from the Karimnagar assembly seat. (Twitter/@GKamalakarTRS) The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday raided premises associated with TRS leader and Telangana minister Gangula Kamalakar in connection with a case related to alleged illegal mining of granite. The ED has registered a case of forex violations in the matter.
According to ED sources, companies associated with Kamalakar are suspected to have been carrying out illegal mining of granite in Karimnagar, Telangana, for the past several years and exporting the same without paying royalty to the government.
Sources said the raids were carried out at Kamalakar’s residence and premises of Shwetha Granite Export Pvt Limited and Aravinda Vyas Granites Pvt Ltd, two companies allegedly associated with him. Kamalakar is said to have been in Dubai when the raids were carried out.
The agency recovered cash worth Rs 49 lakh during the raids and also recovered documents that showed Rs 49 crore in deposits in 900 different accounts in cooperative banks, ED sources said. “Exports were being made, but no money was coming back as remittances. We have information of exports worth over Rs 600 crore having been made illegally in which the state exchequer has lost Rs 125 crore in royalty. The vigilance wing of the mining department had earlier made an inquiry in this matter but did not register an FIR,” an ED official said.
Sources said the searches revealed that money was being moved through benami companies that have now been put under investigation.
The raids come three years after Telangana BJP president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar accused TRS leaders of being hand-in-glove with illegal granite traders in the state.
In a press conference in August 2019, Kumar alleged the granite mining companies were showing zero business despite engaging in mining, and thereby were causing loss of revenue to the government.
This is technically the first big case that the ED has registered against a TRS leader. In July, the agency had attached assets of around Rs 96 crore allegedly belonging to TRS MP Nama Nageswara Rao in connection with its money laundering probe into the affairs of his company, Madhucon Group. However, the probe in this case had started when Rao was with the TDP. The case is related to alleged bank fraud of over Rs 1,000 crore. In August, the agency busted a betting racket in Hyderabad where money was allegedly being sent through hawala transactions to Nepal. Some TRS legislators are being probed in the case.
State govt forms SIT to probe ‘bribery’ claim
Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Wednesday formed a special investigation team (SIT) to investigate whether three people with alleged links to the BJP attempted to bribe four TRS MLAs to bring down Chief Minister K Chandrasherkar Rao’s government. On the night of October 26, Cyberabad police raided a farmhouse in Moinabad on the outskirts of Hyderabad and arrested the three people who they said were affiliated with the BJP. The accused and the BJP have denied the allegations. The trio, who claimed that they had gone to the farmhouse to attend a religious ritual, had been remanded to judicial custody.
The SIT is headed by Hyderabad CP C V Anand. —ENS