Jagan, EMAAR Case: CBI Tells Banks to Freez Accounts

The Central Bureau of Investigation after its extensives raids on YS Jagan Mohan Reddy owned companies and also that of his investors, has identified 25 Bank accounts. As per the agency, these bank accounts belong to the various alleged beneficiaries including Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. The CBI is said to have written to the banks including HDFC and ICICI requesting them to freeze all transactions with immediate effect.

Highly placed CBI sources said the letter to the banks clearly instructs them to halt all the transactions until further notice from the investigating agency. "We want to verify whether there were any fraudulent transactions and to halt the possibility of withdrawal of funds from these accounts. The CBI has drafted in experts from the banking sector to decipher these identified accounts over the next few days," said the sources. The sources also indicated that most likely the accused - Jaganmohan Reddy, Vijay Sai Reddy, Nimmagadda Prasad and B P Acharya will be summoned to appear before the CBI and answer to the charges that have been slapped against them. However, the sources didn't confirm about planning any arrests in the next few days.

Confirming that the searches and seizures on the various individuals and entities figuring in the list of accused in the two cases have yielded crucial information, the CBI official said more names would be included in the FIR after the searches are completed in another 2-3 days. These could include directors of some more companies as well as those politicians and IAS officers who did not figure in the petition on which the AP High Court ordered the probe, but whom the CBI thinks could be involved in the two scams. With CBI filing its FIR, which is a prerequisite for ED, now it is the turn of the Enforcement Directorate and book the accused in the two cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2005.