Madras HC relaxes bail condition of Shekhar Reddy

The Madras High Court today relaxed sand mining baron Shekhar Reddy's bail condition that mandated his stay in New Delhi only, and allowed him to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here.
Reddy, facing money laundering charges, has been asked to appear in Chennai on July 24 and July 31 and on alternative Mondays until further orders.
Justice S Bhaskaran passed the orders on a plea by Reddy seeking relaxation of his bail condition saying he be allowed to stay here and report to the ED office in the city.
Arrested by the ED following seizure of Rs 34 crore in new Rs 2,000 denomination notes by the CBI from him last December during the demonetisation exercise, Reddy and his two associates K Srinivasulu and Prem Kumar were granted bail by Justice Bhaskaran on May 12.

The ED had filed a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Reddy was granted bail on the condition that he and his associates would stay in New Delhi only and report at the ED office there daily.

While granting bail, the judge had directed the three to stay in New Delhi and report to the officer-in-charge of PMLA cases, ED, at 10 AM daily until further orders.
The judge later had relaxed the bail condition of Reddy's two associates and allowed them to sign before the ED authorities here. Following this, Reddy too filed a petition seeking the relief.

When the petition came up earlier on July 11, counsel for Reddy had displayed a newspaper report and told the court that his client was facing life threat and hence his petition for relaxing his bail condition may be adjourned for the time being.
On its part the counsel for the ED had submitted that the investigation of the case has to be continued in Chennai and no purpose would be served if the petitioner was allowed to sign and report at the Delhi office.
The state police has to give the protection to the accused and sought relaxing the bail condition, the counsel had said.

The judge today modified the order enabling Reddy to sign at the ED office here.