Nageswar Rao denies fraud by wife

New Delhi: Interim CBI director M. Nageswar Rao on Tuesday denied allegations of any wrongdoing in investments made by his wife in a private firm, and said in a statement that the money was borrowed by his wife, Mannem Sandhya, from her “longtime family friend.”

Mr Rao’s clarification follows allegations of laundering money through a shell company based in Kolkata.

Mr Rao, an Odisha cadre IPS officer, said all financial dealings by him and his wife have been given to all concerned authorities, and that all property and other details have been submitted in the annual property returns filed with the government.

While giving details of the transaction, Mr Rao said his wife had taken a loan of Rs 25 lakh from Angela Mercantile Pvt Ltd, a company that belongs to an old associate, Praveen Agarwal, for the purchase of an immovable property in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

The property, he said, was purchased by his wife and her cousin, Dr R.K. Rana Babu, on September 18, 2010. A year later, he said, his wife sold some acres of land from her inherited agricultural property for Rs 30.72 lakh and two months later sold more land for an amount of Rs 27.90 lakh.

“Thus she received a total amount of Rs 58.62 lakh as sale proceeds during 2011. This along with Rs 1.38 lakh from personal savings, a total of Rs 60 lakh was sent to Angela Mercantiles Private limited in 2011, who after deducting the loan amount retained the balance of Rs 35 lakh as investment,” he said.

Mr Rao added that in July 2014, a little less than three years of the investment, the Kolkata-based company returned to her a total of Rs 41.33 lakh which included an interest of Rs 6.33 lakh.

Denying reports of unaccounted money, he said, “Further, complete details of all properties of my family and mine have been submitted in my Annual Property Returns to the government for all years, which are available for download on the ministry of home affairs website.”

“Lastly I deny all other reports as they are incorrect and untrue,” Mr Rao concluded.

Mr Rao assumed charge as the CBI’s interim director after its chief Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana were sent on leave by the government last week.

The Supreme Court has directed him not to take any policy decision and submit in a sealed envelope all administrative decisions taken by him.