Enforcement Directorate is learnt to have summoned popular television anchor and founder-chief executive officer of TV9 channel Velicheti Ravi Prakash in connection with the alleged money laundering in investing in an African company before 2019.
Following a direction from the Union ministry of finance, the ED has swung into action and began probing into alleged money laundering by Ravi Prakash in the form of investments in a Kampala-based company.
“He was issued summons for questioning by the authorities on Wednesday,” sources said.
The questioning is expected to take place at the regional office of the Enforcement Directorate in Hyderabad.
The ED authorities are equipped with all the evidences of Ravi Prakash’s hawala transactions and interrogate him based on the documents available with them, sources said.
In 2019, YSR Congress party general secretary V Vijay Sai Reddy lodged a complaint with various authorities including Supreme Court chief justice Ranjan Gogoi to order a comprehensive probe into the alleged money laundering of Ravi Prakash.
He alleged that Ravi Prakash had made illegal investments in association with his wife Devika Rani and other associates in foreign countries without informing the same to the statutory authorities like Income Tax department, Reserve Bank of India, Registrar of Companies etc.
"He illegally acquired a lot of unaccounted wealth which he had stashed in foreign countries which amount to serious offences under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, FEMA, RBI regulations and Income Tax Act," Sai Reddy said.
Sai Reddy submitted documents to show that Ravi Prakash had invested in Kampala Sit Cable Limited, Uganda, where he had a house and was also a director of the company. In 2009, Ravi Prakash had purchased ordinary shares amounting to 90 per cent of the total shareholding in Kampala Siti Cable Ltd for consideration of Rs 34 per share.
Ravi Prakash has multiple local addresses and bank accounts in several countries and acquired huge properties and land with illegal money set through hawala.
“He has a corporate account in Bank of Baroda Ltd, main branch on his Uganda address; and another current account in Indo-Zambia Bank Ltd, Industrial Branch, Lusaka. But the same was not disclosed to any statutory authorities in India,” he said.
Ravi Prakash also has an address in Nairobi in Kenya, where he had made investments in Simba Media Kenya Ltd by purchasing shares individually and through Kampala Siti Cable. Same was not disclosed to the authorities, Sai Reddy pointed out.