Telangana Revenue, Housing and Information Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy

Hyderabad:

The son of a Telangana minister has been summoned by the Chennai customs department for allegedly smuggling high-end watches worth crores of rupees.

Ponguleti Harsha Reddy, son of Telangana Revenue, Housing and Information Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, was originally scheduled to fly on 4 He went to Customs on April 4 but sought a postponement due to dengue fever and agreed to attend after April 27.

According to reports, the smuggling incident took place on February 5, when two luxury watches – Patek Philippe 5740 and Bao Bao – were seized from Hong Kong Indian Muhammed Faherdeen Mubeen, who was visiting Chennai from Singapore. Ji 2759.

Customs estimated the original value of the watches at Rs 173 crore. An official press release from the customs stated that Patek Philippe has no dealers in India and Breguet is out of stock in the Indian market.

According to Customs investigations, Ponguleti Harsha Reddy was allegedly identified as the buyer of Mubeen watches through a middleman, Alokam Naveen Kumar, who was interrogated by Customs on March 12.

Customs sources said that during interrogation, Naveen Kumar revealed that he worked as a middleman between Harsha and luxury watch dealer Mubeen and sent USDT, a cryptocurrency, through the hawala route and cash facilitate transaction payments. , quoting Kumar’s statement during interrogation.

In response to the customs summons, the minister’s son reportedly said he was surprised and denied any knowledge of the case.