Interim CBI chief denies irregularities in investments

Interim CBI Chief M Nageswara Rao on Tuesday denied any irregularities in the investments made by his wife in a private company.

In a signed statement, Rao, a 1986-batch IPS officer from Odisha, said all the transactions and investments made by him or his wife, Mannem Sandhya, have been given to the competent authorities, and everything has been mentioned in his annual property return filed mandatorily with the government.

Denying all reports and giving a chronological order of events, Rao said his wife had taken a loan of Rs 25 lakh from Angela Mercantile Pvt Ltd, a company which belonged to "our longtime friend Praveen Agarwal for the purchase of an immovable property in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh".

Rao's innings as interim CBI chief came to an abrupt halt after the Supreme Court on Friday refrained him from taking a policy decision and submit in a sealed envelope about the administrative decision undertaken by him.

He was made interim chief last week after the government intervened and sent CBI Director Alok Verma and his second-in-command Rakesh Asthana on leave toll corruption cases against them were probed.

Giving details, Rao said the property was purchased by her with her cousin Dr R K Rana Babu on September 18, 2010.

He said a year later, his wife sold some acres of land from her inherited agricultural property for an amount of Rs 30.72 lakh and two months later sold more land for an amount of Rs 27.90 lakh.

"Thus she received a total amount of Rs 58.62 lakh as sale proceeds during 2011. This along with Rs 1.38 lakh from personal savings and a total of Rs 60 lakh was sent to Angela Mercantile Private limited in 2011, who after deducting the loan amount retained the balance of Rs 35 lakh as an investment," he said.

Rao added that in July 2014, a little less than three years of the investment, the Kolkata-based company returned to her a total of Rs 41.33 lakh which included an interest of Rs 6.33 lakh.