Sailajanath, minister for Primary Education in AP, gets caught aiding and abetting money-laundering, in a sting operation by Cobrapost.
AP Primary Education minister S Sailajanath has denied allegations of abetting money-laundering. He was caught on tape participating in a money-laundering scheme.
The sting operation was carried out by Cobrapost.com, an online investigative journal edited by Aniruddha Bahal. Cobrapost had, earlier, carried out a series of sting operations exposing irregularities in India's leading banks.
The video in question, which, by now, has gone viral, shows an undercover reporter in conversation with various prominent officials. Before Sailajanath is even mentioned, it becomes known that the Assistant General Manager of the Indian Bank, R Manohar, is more than willing to open his bank's coffers to a considerable amount of black money.
He goes on to suggest different ways in which the reporter could deposit crores of rupees illicitly, and without revealing the source of the money.
In fact, Manohar takes a great amount of pride in his connections to various ministers back in Andhra Pradesh, and says so to re-assure the reporter.
The latter was posing as an unnamed minister's relative, and wanted to find out if the bank was willing to accept 1 crore rupees in cash without inquiring about the source of the money.
Manohar suggests different nefarious ways in which the reporter's "black" money could be made "white". One of these methods involves buying a certain property from a real estate developer - Prasad, who Manohar knows closely. Prasad is an orthopaedic surgeon, who is involved in the real estate business.
When the reporter asks for some credible form of re-assurance as to whether the transaction will be carried out as per the promises of the banker, Manohar invites him to come to Hyderabad with him, and talk to a minister.
As it turns out, the minister is none other than Sailajanath. In the video, a benign Sailajanath can be seen assuring the reporter that the transaction will be carried out without any flaws.
The video shows Sailajanath saying to the reporter, "We are with this project... don't worry".
He also vouches for Prasad, saying that he is a nice guy and that he can be trusted. The minister also agrees to enter into a future transaction with the reporter.
Sailajanath, naturally, denies the accusations. In an interview with a TV channel, he claims that "strong words" are being used to describe the incident.
He claims that orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Hariprasad (the "Prasad" referred to earlier) is his junior, and that he had wanted Sailajanath to vouch for him because he wanted an interest-free loan to grow his "businesses".
"All I said was that Hariprasad is a nice guy and a hard-worker," Sailajanath repeatedly insists during the TV interview.
When asked about further details, like the name of the bank and the amount of money in question, Sailajanath claimed ignorance, adding, however, that the money being discussed "might have been around 10 or 20 crore rupees".
"This is a very small issue," he said, and even said he suspects political motives behind the allegations.