Journalism of Courage
The chairman of Deccan Chronicle Holding Ltd (DCHL), T Venkattram Reddy, was arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly thrashing and threatening whistleblower Manish Makkar who had exposed an alleged loan fraud case in which Reddy was arrested in February.
The incident occurred on April 29 at Makkar’s residence in South Delhi’s Mehrauli area and Reddy was arrested late Saturday, police said.
Confirming the arrest, Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deepak Mishra told The Sunday Express that on the basis of Makkar’s statement, a case was registered under sections 146 (riot), 323 (causing hurt), 452 (trespass) and 506 (threatening) of the IPC at Mehrauli police station.
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“After registering the case, we arrested Reddy. The case is being probed,” he said. A senior officer of South district said on April 29, Reddy went to Makkar’s residence at Ansal Farms in Chhatarpur.
“Around 8.30 pm on April 29, Reddy reached Makkar’s residence in his Innova along with five others. Five more youths accompanied Reddy in another car. They first assaulted the security guard and then barged into the house,” the officer said.
On hearing the commotion, Makkar came outside to see Reddy and his men standing on the lawn. “Reddy started misbehaving with Makkar. They even pulled out guns to threaten him. One of them hit Makkar on his face with the butt of the pistol. They asked Makkar to come to their office in Green Park with some confidential documents and threatened him of dire consequences if he told anyone of the incident,” the officer said.
Police said Makkar was so rattled and he filed a police complaint on May 1. “Makkar also submitted CCTV camera footage of the entire episode. After registering the case, police identified the accused and arrested him on Saturday,” the officer said. Reddy has been remanded in police custody for three days.
Police said Reddy’s car driver, identified as Rakesh, was also arrested for his alleged involvement. Rakesh, who lives in East Vinod Nagar, was present at the time of incident, police said.
Police are now conducting raids at several places to nab the other accused in the case.
Reddy was arrested on February 14 by the CBI for defaulting on loans obtained through false documents after a complaint by Canara Bank. The bank had alleged that Reddy caused it a loss of over Rs 350 crore. Reddy’s brother T Vinayak Ravi Reddy was also picked up in connection with this case.
The two had allegedly availed of open cash credit limit with periodic enhancements and multiple short term corporate loans aggregating approximately Rs 1,230 crore, thereby availing excessive bank finance without adequate drawing power.
