The Enforcement Directorate sleuths simultaneously raided the houses of Telugu Desam Party leaders J.C. Diwakar Reddy and Prabhakar Reddy at Tadipatri in the district and at Hyderabad on Friday. There was, however, no official confirmation as to what the ED was inquiring into. Amid tight security, the raids began early in the morning when both Mr. Diwakar Reddy and Prabhakar Reddy were present in the house on their return from Hyderabad two days ago. As the supporters agitated in front of their leaders’ houses, the police immediately shifted them away.
The raids continued till 8.30 p.m. and are likely to go on till late in the night.
The Mines and Geology Department had issued a demand notice to Mr. Diwakar Reddy’s son Pavan Kumar Reddy and seven other directors of Trishul Cement Industries on June 1, 2020, giving 15 days time to pay up ₹100.24 crore for alleged large-scale unauthorised mining. A case is pending in the court in the matter, but Mr. Diwakar Reddy was not directly part of the company. This case could be one of the issues the Enforcement Directorate is looking into. The other case could be registering of BS-III vehicles as BS-IV vehicles thus evading some tax. While these cases are pending against the family members of Mr. Diwakar Reddy and Mr. Prabhakar Reddy, they are personally not involved in them.
The Transport Department had filed 27 FIRs with the police in June 2020, pertaining to the alleged purchase of 154 BS-III-compliant lorry-trailers in scrap from Ashok Leyland and getting them registered as BS-IV vehicles at Kohima in Nagaland by producing fake invoices, insurance certificates and police no-objection certificates.
