Industrialist J Sekar Reddy has now been let off by the CBI from the case that the agency had filed against him four years ago, by citing lack of evidence to launch the prosecutable case against the accused.   Following the decision of the central agency, the special court for CBI in Chennai had on Monday closed all the cases filed against the industrialist and five others. 

Sekar Reddy had drawn the spotlight after he was accused of illegally converting the demonetized currencies to the high-denomination currencies. When millions of people had marched and thronged before the banks to replace the old currencies with the new ones as the sequel of the Center's demonetization of Rs 500 and 1000 currency notes, the entire nation was shocked after the revelation that Sekar Reddy had earthed crores of new currency notes. 

According to reports, the Income Tax department had seized Rs 33.89 crore in Rs 2,000 currency notes from the properties that belong to the industrialist, who was also a member of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD). Following the seizure of the IT department, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered three FIRs against Sekar Reddy and his partners.

After filing the case, the agency had arrested Sekar Reddy and his aides in December 2016. He later came out on bail and he was again arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in March 2017 and following the development, he was removed from the TTD by the Andhra Pradesh government. By filing the case, the CBI had accused Sekar Reddy and his partners of working with the officials in the bank in their operation of converting the demonetized notes to the new and high denomination currency of Rs 2,000. 

The agency had also accused them of preventing the public from getting the new denomination currency notes. It went on to accuse the bank officials of teaming up with Sekar Reddy and his partners in his operation of converting the currency notes. The probing agency said that the industrialist and his partners had caused Rs 247 crore loss to the government in illegally converting the demonetized currencies. 

The CBI had investigated 170 witnesses and examined 879 documents with a connection to the case. However, the central agency has now come to the conclusion to drop off all the cases against Sekar Reddy and his partners by citing that there is a lack of evidence. The CBI had disclosed to the special court on Monday and said that the cases against the accused would be closed. 

Following the development, Additional sessions judge S Jawahar has permitted the CBI to close the FIRs based on its final report. The court said that on the conclusion of the investigation, CBI has filed a charge sheet under section 173(2) of the CrPC recommending closure of the case for lack of sufficient evidence along with the statement of witnesses recorded during the investigation. 

According to reports, the CBI said that it had found nothing incriminating against the accused and hence wants to close the case and the court has stated that the evidence on record is not adequate to launch a prosecutable case against the accused persons beyond reasonable doubt to establish that they fraudulently converted the unauthorized cash held by them in old currency notes into new high denomination notes.

Thus, it has concluded the cases under the grounds that it couldn't able to prove the offenses of criminal conspiracy, cheating, or criminal misconduct against the accused following which the agency had recommended the court to close the case. The reports stated that along with Sekar Reddy, his partners Premkumar, Rethinam, K Srinivasulu, S Ramachandran, and Parasmal Lodha have been accused in the case. Sekar Reddy has observed close ties with Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Panneerselvam and in 2019, the former has been reinducted as a member of TTD.