Janardhan Reddy in trouble; CBI heads for Virgin Island

The noose around the neck of mining baron and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy appears to be getting tighter with the Central Bureau of Investigation now deciding to probe the foreign funds that he has reportedly parked in tax havens abroad.

The CBI will form a special team to visit both Virgin Islands and Mauritius to find out about the money that Reddy has allegedly parked over there. Reddy's interrogation has revealed a couple of details regarding the same.

As per the investigation, Reddy brothers are alleged to have stashed away abroad around Rs 210 crore.

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Reportedly, a private company, Man-Go Pub Private Limited was registered in 2004 at Singapore with an intention of providing entertainment, food and beverages. Over the course of time, the operations of this company changed and it started dealing with wholesale trade.

Reddy, who was the director of this company, transferred one share of this company in favour of GJR Holdings, which had its address at the Isle of Man -- is a tax haven.

In June 2009, the share was then transferred in the favour of Interlink Services Group Limited in the British Virgin Islands, another tax haven.

There were many instances of under-invoicing and most transactions never came to the notice of the Union government.

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During the probe it was found that Rs 210 crore, which ought to have been the profit of the Union government, was parked away in these tax havens.

The CBI believes that apart from the British Virgin Islands there were a couple of transactions that were made involving yet another tax haven, Mauritus.

Mauritius has been used as a money laundering spot by several politicians from both Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In fact a couple of days before the Karnataka Lokayukta could give his report on illegal mining, there was a report as to how some politicians from Karnataka had parked money in Mauritius.

The CBI, however, would look into the specifics in respect to the illegal mining case and the probe would be entirely focused on Janardhan Reddy and his transactions abroad.