INDIA: Akhand Pratap confesses to money laundering

NEW DELHI: Former UP chief secretary Akhand Pratap Singh has reportedly confessed to the CBI that he had picked up substantial shares in Moradabad-based Venus Sugar, UP’s first sugar mill, and laundered crores of rupees through a fellow bureaucrat’s wife with whom he had an illicit relationship.

Singh, lodged in Tihar Jail, was granted bail by a local court on October 18 but the order was stayed by Delhi High Court on Monday. Sources said the CBI is likely to use Singh’s confessional statement before the HC on Tuesday to oppose the bail plea.

The CBI, meanwhile, seized a typewriter which was used by Singh to fabricate wills of his late father and a close relative to transfer properties in his daughter’s name. He also reportedly disclosed his role in the 1992-93 share scam during the Harshad Mehta bull run on the stock market. He told sleuths that he had sent at least Rs 1 crore through bank drafts to a broker in Calcutta Stock Exchange.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Akhand_Pratap_confesses_to_money_laundering/articleshow/2481725.cms