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Chennai: According to official documents, The Chennai Customs has issued summons to Ponguleti Harsha Reddy, son of a Telangana minister, for his alleged involvement in smuggling of expensive watches worth crores of rupees.
Customs sources said that Reddy was asked to appear on April 4 but in a letter dated April 3, he expressed his inability to appear, saying he was recovering from dengue fever, citing the letter.
Official sources said that he has agreed to appear before the department after April 27 as per medical advice. Speaking to media, Reddy said he had nothing to do with the case.
The son of Telangana Revenue and Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said, “It is completely baseless. I am unwell right now.”The summons, dated March 28, was sent to the office of a family-owned firm in Hyderabad, of which Harsha Reddy is a director.
On February 5,The smuggling case was registered by Customs, when two luxury watches—Patek Philippe 5740 and Breguet 2759—were seized from a Hong Kong-based Indian, Mohammed Fahardin Mubeen, who had come to Chennai from Singapore.
The original value of the watches was estimated by Customs at Rs 1.73 crore; Patek Philippe has no dealers in India, while Breguet is out of stock in the Indian market, said an official press release by Customs.
Sources said that as per the investigation conducted by Customs, Harsha Reddy has been identified as the buyer of the watches from Mubeen through an intermediary, Alokam Naveen Kumar, who was questioned by Customs on March 12.
During interrogation, Naveen Kumar has revealed that he acted as a middleman between Harsha and luxury watch dealer Mubeen and facilitated payments for transactions through hawala using USDT (a kind of cryptocurrency) and cash, Customs sources claimed citing Kumar’s statements during interrogation. When contacted by media, Harsha Reddy flatly denied the allegations and termed them “baseless”.
Sources said that in response to the Customs summons, Harsha Reddy said he was shocked and denied having any knowledge of the case. Official sources said that however, he has agreed to appear before the department after April 27 as per medical advice.
Rejecting the anticipatory bail plea filed by Naveen Kumar, the Madras High Court in its order on March 18 said that based on the perusal of the records, the total amount involved in smuggling of luxury watches over a period could exceed Rs 100 crore.
Customs sources said that during the review of the case by the Alandur court here, the judicial magistrate on April 1 directed the Customs Department to investigate Harsha Reddy and arrest Alokam Naveen Kumar.
