The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached properties worth Rs 22.10 crore of firms connected to Diwakar Road Lines and Jatadhara Industries Pvt Ltd, (controlled by former MLA JC Prabhakar Reddy) and others in an ongoing money laundering investigation in the case relating to the BS-IV vehicles scam.
The attached properties also belong to C Gopal Reddy and Company (belonging to MLA’s close associate Gopal Reddy, a Civil contractor of Tadipatri, Ananthapur District of Andhra Pradesh) and family members of JC Prabhakar Reddy. The Supreme Court in its order dated March 29, 2017, had ordered that vehicles that were not compliant to BS IV emission norms should not be sold in India by any manufacturer or dealer from April 1, 2017 and that the registering authorities were also prohibited from registering such vehicles from the cut off date.
However, Jatadhara Industries Pvt Ltd (JIPL) and C Gopal Reddy and Company in contravention to the SC Order purchased BS-III vehicles from Ashok Leyland Ltd. at discount and fraudulently registered the same as BS-IV vehicles by fabricating the invoice copies. Investigation revealed that some of the registrations were done in Nagaland, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the ED said in a statement.
The ED has gathered evidence in the form of fabricated invoices from RTO authorities in Nagaland and original invoices issued by Ashok Leyland as scrap for these vehicles and established the crime. The crime proceeds generated by owning/plying and/or selling these vehicles have been quantified as Rs 38.36 crore, the agency said.
As a result of the probe, movable properties of Rs 6.31 crore and 68 immovable properties of Rs 15.79 crore belonging to JC Prabhakar Reddy and his family member and C Gopal Reddy and his family members have been attached, it said.