ED unearths over Rs 100 crore unaccounted deals by Congress leader Gaddam Vivekanand's companies

HYDERABAD: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has conducted searches under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999, at four locations in Telangana on Wednesday at the residences of Congress leader Dr Gaddam Vivekanand as well as the office premises of their company Visaka Industries Ltd in the city and Vigilance Security Services Pvt. Ltd. at Ramagundam.

Searches were also conducted at his temporary place of residence at Hitec City in Mancherial where he was found. The ED had initiated investigation on the basis of a reference from Telangana Police to investigate a transaction of Rs 8 crore from the bank account of Dr G Vivek to M/s Vigilance Security.

The ED investigation revealed that the bank account of M/s Vigilance Security was being used to circuitously transfer money with no real business rationale and that Dr G Vivek, his wife and Visaka Industries had transactions of more than Rs 100 Crore with M/s Vigilance Security.

The entity declared mere Rs 20 lakh as ‘revenue from operations’ in its latest balance sheet whereas it reported assets worth Rs 64 crore mainly in the nature of long term loans and advances. Since inception, credit and debit transactions in the company’s impugned bank account was found to be more than Rs 200 crore.

Investigation also revealed indirect control of Dr G Vivek over M/s Vigilance Security. The investigation also revealed that prima facie, FEMA contraventions by M/s Vigilance Security Services Pvt. Ltd. and its parent company Yeshwant Realtors whose majority shares were held by a foreign national.

Prima facie, FEMA violations were also noticed in the incorporation of an entity by Dr G Vivek in a foreign tax-haven country. Search operations resulted in the recovery seizure of digital devices; incriminating documents indicating suspicious, unaccounted transactions worth several crores as well as use of unaccounted cash in property deals. Seized documents also revealed large scale inter-corporate deposits within group companies having no legitimate business but holding huge land assets.

Searches also confirmed the bogus nature of M/s Vigilance Security Services Pvt. Ltd. which was found non-existent at its declared addresses. Further investigation was under progress.