Bengaluru: Kicking off round two of interrogation on Sunday, Central Crime Branch officers asked mining baron G Janardhana Reddy if he had slept well at the branch's waiting room last night. The former Karnataka minister was questioned at the CCB's office till 2:30 am in connection with an alleged Ponzi scam.
Sources told News18 that Reddy and his lawyer Chandrasekhar RP were given a blanket and some clothes to spend the night at the waiting room before ACP Venkatesh Prasanna arrived in the morning to resume the questioning.
The mining baron, who appeared before the CCB on Saturday after being elusive for three days, might be arrested when the crime branch gathers enough evidence against him, sources said. They added that he is likely to be charged with criminal conspiracy.
Reddy's anticipatory bail plea will come up for hearing on Monday.
The former minister had earlier on Saturday released a video message from an unknown location, denying the allegations as a "political conspiracy". He said he was not absconding and was very much in the city, while asserting that there was no need for him to flee.
"I have not committed anything wrong. The police do not have a single document to prove that I am wrong. They are misleading the media," he claimed in his message telecast by TV channels.
Reddy, who was a minister in the erstwhile Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka, said he never panicked as neither his name figured in the first information report (FIR) nor was any notice served on him.
"Now that the notice has been issued by the police, I have decided to appear before the Central Crime Branch today (Saturday) itself though the notice says I should appear on Sunday," Reddy said.
"I decided to make this video to let people know the truth. I have faith in the police and believe that they would not succumb to any political pressure," he added.
The CCB had launched a hunt for him on Wednesday in connection with a money transaction worth crores of rupees, allegedly linked to a Ponzi scheme.
It was also on the lookout for Reddy's close aide, Ali Khan, who had allegedly struck a Rs 20-crore deal with Syed Ahmed Fareed of Ambidant Marketing Pvt Ltd. — a company accused of involvement in the Ponzi scheme — to bail him out from the Enforcement Directorate investigation.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar had said on Wednesday that Reddy was absconding and the police were looking for him to question him in the case.
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