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Aimed at shifting the attention towards the main Opposition party,Telugu Desam,the Congress Government,which is facing all kinds of allegations after the Satyam fraud and favouring Maytas Infra in awarding the Metro Rail Project,has trained its guns on TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu by accusing the former CM of padding up the profit figures of his family-owned firm,Heritage Foods Limited,and also by questioning his land deals. Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has directed Chief Secretary P Ramakanth Reddy to submit a report on the land deals of Heritage Foods and the alleged irregularities involved.
At the crux of this inquiry is a report published in the Telugu daily Sakshi that Naidu’s firm cooked up figures to show that Heritage Foods Limited was running in profits when it actually incurred losses. The report appeared in Sakshi,owned by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy,son of the Chief Minister,at a time when political parties are cornering the Congress Government for favoring the Raju family.
“The report clearly indicates that the firm fudged its accounts to show profits while everyone knows that Heritage Foods has incurred losses. We want to know how the firm is showing profits,” said Finance Minister K Rosaiah.
However,instead of probing into the allegations of fudging of figures,the issue has taken a new turn. The Congress is now alleging that the promoters of Heritage Foods floated another company called Heritage Infra and transferred land to it and thereby,cheated the investors of Heritage Foods.
Naidu’s wife Bhuvaneswari is vice-chairman and managing director and son Lokesh is an executive director of Heritage Foods. “The land located at Kondapur is estimated to be worth Rs 90 crore,but Heritage Foods transferred it to Heritage Infra for under Rs 5 crore,causing a loss to the shareholders of Heritage Foods. Heritage Foods also claims that it sold off its 51 per cent stake in Heritage Infra to a private company for nearly Rs 35 crore which is difficult to digest because the three-year-old company had hardly done any business,” said an official. After selling its stake,the Heritage Infra was renamed SCM Infra Developers Ltd.
When contacted,Naidu said that these were trivial allegations to divert the attention from the Congress’ involvement in the Satyam scam and it was for Heritage Foods to respond to the allegations and not the TDP.
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