Chennai, Sep 18 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted searches in Chennai and Hyderabad as part of a money laundering probe into an alleged Rs 200 crore bank fraud and benami assets probe against Sasikala, a close aide of late Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, and some others, officials said.

At least ten premises in the two cities linked to a person named GRK Reddy of the Marg group, claimed to be an alleged benami of Sasikala, are being raided under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The probe is related to a Rs 200 crore alleged fraud with the Canara Bank in which the CBI had filed an FIR, they said.

Sasikala has not been named in the CBI FIR.

Sources said the Income-Tax Department had sometime back passed an order alleging that Reddy was the benamidar (in whose name a benami property is standing) of Sasikala for certain assets held in the Marg group, the officials claimed.

Benami means 'no name' or 'without name' and such properties are those in which the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name the property has been purchased.

Jayalalithaa passed away on December 5, 2016 at a private hospital in Chennai at the age of 68. PTI NES DV DV

Money laundering probe targets alleged benami assets and linked bank fraud, prompting multi location searches under PMLA. Search operations were conducted under the PMLA into an alleged bank fraud and associated benami assets, with multiple premises searched in two cities focusing on a named individual claimed to be a benamidar for a political associate; the inquiry connects to a separate criminal FIR concerning the bank fraud and follows an income tax finding that the named individual held assets as a benamidar.