Deccan Chronicle chairman arrested

Hyderabad: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Saturday arrested the chairman of Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd Venkatrama Reddy in a bank cheating case.

The arrest follows a complaint lodged by Canara Bank.

Reddy, who owes Rs3.5 billion (Dh207 million) to Canara Bank and another Rs2.5 billion to other banks, was taken in to custody in Bangalore. Later he was shifted to Hyderabad where he was produced before a criminal court in Nampally.

DCHL is the publisher of Deccan Chronicle, the largest circulated English daily of Hyderabad and is also published from many other centers in South India.

Though the bank cheating case was under probe for a long time and the investigation agency had seized many properties of the company, it was not sufficient to recover all the dues of the banks.

The court had however restrained the seizure of the printing presses of the company to allow it to continue the publication of the newspaper.