The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told the Telangana High Court that Rajya Sabha member Y Sujana Chowdary has duped the banks to a tune of Rs 5000 crore. It said the loans were obtained in the name of scores of shell companies controlled by Chowdary. More importantly, the CBI said that issuing a lookout notice against Sujana Chowdary was in the interest of the country.
The CBI stated this during a hearing of a petition filed by the Rajya Sabha MP challenging the lookout circular issued against him. Sujana filed this petition seeking interim relief to visit the US to buy oxygen concentrators.
The CBI said that Best & Crompton Engineering Projects Ltd of Chennai and its directors and officials had availed of a letter of credit facility from the banks claiming that they were undertaking government projects. The loan amounts were diverted to the shell companies that have no business at all. A large number of the shell companies were having the address of the Sujana Group in Hyderabad. During the searches, as many as 278 rubber seals of these shell companies were recovered. It said that these companies were used for circular trading and have also shown the same transactions with Best and Compton, the CBI said.
However, the judge, who said he would examine the issue on August 17, said that since Sujana has not been shown as an accused, he would be permitted to go abroad and come back within a month.
The CBI also told the high court that it seized several ‘incriminating’ documents from the Jubilee Hills residence of Sujana. It said Sujana Chowdary is the director in some of the companies such as the Splendid Metals Company, Sujana Towers Ltd, and Sujana Universal Industries. All these companies are facing allegations of raising false invoices.
