The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided Telangana Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy’s offices and houses in Hyderabad on Friday.
The ED raided multiple premises linked to Ponguleti and some others as part of a money laundering case linked to an alleged smuggling racket involving around Rs 100 crore, official sources said.
The money laundering case stems from a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence complaint against Ponguleti’s son, Harsha Reddy of the Raghav Group, who is alleged to have purchased seven watches worth Rs 5 crore.
The payments for these are linked to an alleged hawala and cryptocurrency racket worth Rs 100 crore and a man named A. Naveen Kumar is already under the ED scanner.
Sources said ED officials arrived from New Delhi and searched 16 locations linked to Ponguleti and other individuals.
Sources said some relatives’ residences are also being searched. Apart from the local police, teams of the Central Reserve Police Force are providing security to the ED teams.
The ED teams from New Delhi arrived at 5.30 am on Friday and started searching the Minister’s residence in Narsingi apart from his offices in Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills.
Interestingly, Ponguleti’s residence and offices were searched by the ED on November 3, 2023, during the elections.
