ED orders freeze on Rs 88 lakh funds of Qatar crime accused

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said that it has frozen investments worth Rs 88 lakh in India of Subrahmanya Srinivas Pinninti from Qatar in connection with a money laundering probe.

The ED, in a statement, said that it issued freeze orders against Pinninti, Head of Buyers Department in Al Meera Consumer Goods Company, Doha, to safeguard proceeds of crime worth Rs 88 lakh.

It said that the freeze order under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), against Pinninti, froze his investments worth Rs 88 lakh made in India out of the proceeds of crime acquired in Qatar.

It said that the order was passed after the ED carried out searches at his residence in Seethammadhara in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam, and found that he has acquired three residential plots in his name in Vizinagaram and Visakhapatnam districts of the state.

The current guidance value of the three plots is approximately Rs 43 lakh, it said.

The ED said that searches at Pinninti's premises on June 15 was based on Letter Rogatory (LR) received from the Qatar Embassy of in New Delhi.

It further said that money laundering probe by the financial probe agency revealed that Pinninti had transferred suspected funds from his Doha National Bank account to his Indian bank accounts with Axis Bank and HDFC Bank.

"The money trail revealed that he has invested Rs 45 lakh out of these funds in various mutual funds in the name of his wife and self. And he also acquired a few landed properties," it added.