Ambidant ponzi scam: Janardhan Reddy named in charge sheet filed by Bengaluru Police

Bengaluru: A charge sheet has been filed by the Bengaluru Police in the Ambidant scam three months after mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy was arrested. The 4,800-page charge sheet names Reddy and nine others for cheating people of more than Rs 500 crore.

Former minister Reddy has been booked under various Indian Penal Code sections for destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy, cheating. Several sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) have also been slapped against him. Reddy is currently out on bail.

Reddy is accused of shielding perpetrators from being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in exchange for bribes amounting to Rs 20 crore. The Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) had claimed to have discovered a transaction trail through which the Ambidant owners gifted him 57 kg of gold to Reddy.

The CCB in a press release said that about Rs 3.45 crore in cash has been recovered from 37 frozen bank accounts belonging to the accused. The same has been submitted to the court through demand draft. They have also asked the district authorities to attach Rs 59 crore worth of properties, including Reddy’s prized Parijatha mansion near Chalukya Circle in Bengaluru.

The other accused in the case are Syed Fareed Ahmed, Syed Afaq Ahmed, Vijay Tata, K Mehfuz Ali Khan and gold merchant Ramesh alias Ballari Ramesh, other executives of the company Inayat Ullah Wahab and Ashraf Ali. 

Ambidant Marketing Private Limited, run by Bengaluru-based father-son duo Syed Ahmed Fareed and Syed Afaq Ahmed, collected money from customers, in the name of “Halal Investment," offering huge returns of up to 12% interest per month. The company used to return the first installment as promised luring customers to invest more. But the company never returned their investments for a second time.

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