SC refuses to consider plea against order allowing Bharathi Reddy to replace attached property with fixed deposits

The Supreme Court Friday declined to consider a plea by Enforcement Directorate against the Telangana High Court's order, allowing Y S Bharathi Reddy, the wife of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy, to substitute the property attached by the agency in a money laundering case with fixed deposits.

A bench of Justices A S Oka and Sanjay Karol sought to know from the central agency if the immovable property attached was the proceeds of the alleged crime.

The counsel, representing Reddy, cited several portions of the high court order, establishing that the property attached were not the actual proceeds of the alleged crime.

Appearing for the ED, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju contended that they were not but amounted to the equivalent value.

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The top court observed that the property attached was not the actual one, which was acquired from the proceeds of the crime and this finding is not disputed by the ED.

Having noted that it is not ED's case that the value of the attached property mentioned in the Telangana High Court is incorrect, the court said, “In view of this factual position, we decline to entertain the special leave petition”.

The ED had attached the property under money laundering charges in a corruption case, which involved Bharathi Cement.

In the appeal against the high court order, passed in November last year, the ED had contended that the high court had wrongly directed the release of the confirmed attached immovable property pertaining to Reddy in lieu of fixed deposit for a sum of Rs 1,36,91,285. The central agency had argued that the order was detrimental to the spirit and object of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.