- Ravi Prakash
- TV9 CEO Ravi Prakash
- Vijay Sai Reddy
YSR Congress party MP and Andhra Pradesh government’s official representative in New Delhi V Vijay Sai Reddy on Monday appealed to Supreme Court chief justice Ranjan Gogoi to order a comprehensive probe into the alleged ill-gotten wealth of Velicheti Ravi Prakash, former chief executive officer of popular television channel TV9.
In a five-page letter to the chief justice, Sai Reddy thoroughly exposed the alleged illegal investments made by Ravi Prakash, 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 alleged that Ravi Prakash had misused and abused his position to blackmail and extort unaccounted money and assets in exchange for various favours in the news channels and social media platforms.
“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.
The YSRC MP also alleged that Ravi Prakash was also closely associated with Sana Satish Babu, who is already under investigation by CBI in connection with Moin Qureshi, a meat exporter.
“They have cheated the banks and the MMTC with their illegal acts and acquired the money and sent the same through hawala by creating false and fabricated documents. They along with Sukesh Gupta of Musaddilal Jewellers are involved in several illegal businesses, activities and also acquired several properties and crores of money,” he said.
Sai Reddy submitted documents to substantiate his charges. He said 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.
In the same year, other parties had purchased the same ordinary shares amounting to 10 per cent in consideration of Rs 140 per share. It raises suspicion as to how a profit-making cable company has issued its valuable shares to Ravi Prakash at a discounted price.
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.
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.
Ravi Prakash is the chairman and his wife Devika Ravi is director in Media Nxt Ltd. He is authorised to operate as signatory to the bank account with the Indo-Zambia Bank Ltd. This was also not disclosed to any statutory authorities in India.
Ravi Prakash is also a director in iCast International Inc which has its office in New Jersey. This company has entered into an MoU with Yemen Telecommunications and Information Technology Co., in which both the parties agreed to invest two million dollars to offer cable television, broad band internet access and other services in several cities of Yemen. The same is also not informed to the statutory authorities.
Ravi Prakash is holding 15,000 shares in Maaya Vision, LLC at Delware, USA. The same was also not informed to the statutory authorities.
“These are some of the illegal activities Ravi Prakash had done and acquired huge wealth in foreign countries and is also drawing commissions from these companies. So, I request the CJI to order an inquiry by Enforcement Directorate and CBI against Ravi Prakash and others for various offences under PMLA, FEMA, RBI regulations and IT Act etc,” Sai Reddy said.
