G Janardhana Reddy takes off with 57 kgs of gold

BENGALURU: G Janardhana Reddy the BJP leader and mining industrialist has come under the police scanner for allegedly “bailing out” on Syed Ahmed Fareed in an Enforcement Directorate (ED) case which was involving a Rs 600 crore chain-link investment fraud. The police has said that, preliminary investigations have revealed that Reddy and his assistant Mehfuz Ali Khan received 57 kg of gold which is said to be worth Rs 18 crore, from Fareed to “negotiate” with the ED officials.

Syed Ahmed Fareed and his son Syed Ahmed Afaq are already accused of running Ambidant Marketing and duping thousands of investors since Dec 2016.

On Wednesday the city police commissioner, T Suneel Kumar said: “The crime branch had been investigating the transactions of Ambidant Marketing Private Limited following several complaints from people stating that they had been cheated. We had seized the bank accounts and on scrutinising them, one transaction pertaining to payment of Rs 18 crore raised suspicion. It is in this backdrop that we have arrested two persons, including Fareed.”

Suneel Kumar said that, “We have also decided to summon Janardhana Reddy, Ali Khan and others for questioning.”

The Police have carried out a search at Reddy’s apartment which is located near Basaveshwara Circle during the day and seized a few documents.

“The crime branch, led by additional commissioner of police Alok Kumar and deputy commissioner of police Girish S, started probing the complaints against Ambidant and arrested Fareed. We found that Rs 18 crore had been transferred to a bank account by the company. On checking, we learned that the money had been transferred to city based gold bullion trader Ramesh Kothari.” Kumar said. 

“When questioned, Kothari said he had received instructions to hand over 57 kg of gold to Ramesh of Rajmahal Fancy Jewellers of Ballari. We arrested Ramesh from Ballari and he disclosed that the gold was handed over to Janardhana Reddy’s assistant Ali Khan. Now we have to summon Ali Khan and Janardhana Reddy to know where the gold is,” the additional commissioner said.

“During questioning, Fareed claimed that he had paid Reddy and others as they promised to bail him out in the ED case,” said T Suneel Kumar. 

The lookout notices which have been issued for Reddy, were denied by Kumar. “We have learned that the money collected from investors of Ambident has gone to Reddy and his aide. We have to probe the case and recover the gold,” he said.