The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized six high-end cars, including Ferrari, Range Rover and Mercedes-Benz, reportedly belonging to TDP MP Y S Chowdary and has summoned him for questioning next week in connection with an alleged Rs 5,700 crore bank loan fraud case, officials said Saturday.
The agency said it took the action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after it conducted searches at eight premises of the Sujana Group in Hyderabad and Delhi on Friday.
The ED said Chowdary, a sitting Rajya Sabha member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), was the man behind the Sujana Group of companies and it has gathered evidence that "all directors of various Sujana Group of companies act under his instructions".
The agency said the high-end cars seized were registered in the name of dummy companies.
The TDP MP, considered close aide of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and party president N Chandrababu Naidu, has been summoned for questioning on November 27 in the case, it said.
Chowdary was a Minister of State (MoS) in the Union cabinet before Naidu quit the NDA early this year over the Centre's refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh
Documents related to alleged shell firms, under the umbrella of the Sujana group, were recovered after raids were carried out against the Chennai firm, it said
It said that in "voluntary statements tendered under Section 50 of the PMLA, directors of BCEPL had stated Chowdary is the person responsible for the entire activities of Sujana group of companies and that they all have acted/rendered their signatures on the insistence Chowdary, either directly or through CFO and company secretary of Sujana group and that they are namesake directors and as such they had no idea as to how the funds of BCEPL were utilised and that the entire operations/transactions of Sujana Group of companies are known only to these key persons."