Chowdary refutes allegations of financial irregularities

A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on his firms and issued him summons, former Union Minister and TDP MP Y.S. Chowdary on Sunday denied the allegations of financial irregularities.

He told reporters here that none of the companies established by him was involved in any irregularities and termed the allegations as a conspiracy by the Centre to politically harm him.

"Since I am politically active, I am being targeted," said the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Rajya Sabha member.

The ED officials on Friday and Saturday conducted searches at the residence and offices of Chowdary and asked him to appear before the agency on November 27.

According to ED, searches revealed that banks have been defrauded by companies owned by Chowdary to the tune of over Rs 5,700 crore.

The ED seized six luxury cars including Ferrari, Range Rover, and Benz from Chowdary's residence. These vehicles, registered in the name of dummy companies, have been seized under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED said.

Chowdary, who owns Sujana Group of companies, said the cars seized by ED belonged to the family. Claiming that he has nothing to do with dummy companies, the MP said his firms were functioning with transparency.

"Is it a crime to obtain bank loans," he asked and denied allegations of defrauding the banks.

"Documents recovered indicate that they are controlling over 120 companies and most of them are non-operating or companies on paper only without any genuine business activities," the ED had said in a statement on Saturday.

Chowdary is a close aide of TDP President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. He was Minister of Science and Technology in the Narendra Modi Cabinet till March when the TDP pulled out of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.

(With inputs from agencies.)