Telangana's Revenue, Housing and Information Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy
The son of a Telangana Minister has been summoned by the Customs Department in Chennai over his alleged role in the smuggling of high-end watches worth crores of rupees.
Ponguleti Harsha Reddy - son of Telangana's Revenue, Housing and Information Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy - was supposed to appear before the Customs on April 4 but sought postponement due to dengue fever, agreeing to attend after April 27.
The smuggling incident reportedly happened on February 5 when two luxury watches - Patek Philippe 5740 and Breguet 2759 - were seized from a Hong Kong-based Indian Muhammed Faherdeen Mubeen, who was visiting Chennai from Singapore.
The original value of the watches was estimated by the Customs to be Rs 1.73 crore. The Patek Philippe has no dealer in India, while the Breguet is out of stock in the Indian market, an official press release by the Customs has been quoted as saying.
According to investigations by the Customs, Ponguleti Harsha Reddy has been allegedly identified as the buyer of the watches from Mubeen through an intermediary, Alokam Naveen Kumar, who was interrogated by the Customs on March 12.
During interrogation, Naveen Kumar had reportedly revealed that he had acted as an intermediary between Harsha and Mubeen, a luxury watch dealer, and facilitated payments for the transaction through USDT - a form of cryptocurrency - and cash, using the hawala route, Customs sources claimed, quoting Kumar's statements during questioning.
In his response to the Customs summons, the Minster's son had reportedly said he was surprised and denied knowledge about the case.