Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate today attached assets worth Rs 34 crore in connection with its money laundering probe against industrialist and sand mining baron J Sekhar Reddy and his associates. This was registered post-demonetisation.

According to the ED Joint Director KSVV Prasad, the agency’s Chennai zonal office has issued a provisional attachment order of “Rs 33,74,92,000 against Reddy and his associates in connection with exchange of old notes for new ones under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act”.

He said Reddy was examined under the provisions of Act and the cash seized by the Income Tax department belongs to his SRS Mining Company and he admitted that it was unaccounted money. He had not divulged the actual source of the new currency notes other than stating that they were from the sand mining business.

‘Srinivasulu (Reddy’s aide) stated that he used to receive money from SRS Mining and used to use a part of the same for converting into gold bars through Premakumar as per the instructions of Sekhar Reddy. Remaining cash was kept on various premises and the same was earlier recovered and seized by Income Tax department. However, he has not divulged the modus operandi of converting old currencies into new ones,” the official said.

Investigations revealed that the old demonitised currencies were converted to new ones through various persons on commission basis.

The ED arrested Reddy and his two alleged associates K Sreenivasulu and P Kumar in this case in March.

Reddy had earlier been arrested by the CBI too in the same case of alleged black money generation post-demonetisation and was out on conditional bail.

The ED had filed a criminal complaint against Reddy and others based on a CBI FIR in the case which was registered after the I-T department first searched his premises and those of his associates in November last year.

The I-T department has made one of the biggest detection of alleged unaccounted income of over Rs 142 crore in this case through this seizure.