Naidu breaks silence over family firm,says its clean

Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday broke his silence over allegations of fudging profit numbers...

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday broke his silence over allegations of fudging profit numbers against his family-owned firm Heritage Foods Limited,saying the company was not involved in any wrongdoing.

Even when I was the chief minister I only encouraged growth of business through fair business and not by resorting to any illegal practices, Naidu,who headed the government in Andhra Pradesh between 1995 and 2004,said. Heritage Foods has neither fudged its accounts nor has it cheated its shareholders, he said of the dairy products company he founded in 1992.

Naidu broke his silence only after the grand alliance with TRS,CPI and CPM was forged on Saturday evening. Throughout last week,although he was constantly troubled by the allegations against the firm where his wife is the vice-chairperson and managing director and son Lokesh is the executive director,Naidu did not react so as not to jeopardise the fragile talks that were going on between the alliance parties.

It all started with a vernacular daily carrying a report on the eve of the grand alliance talks,alleging that Heritage Foods Limited cooked up profits while it was actually running into losses.

Finance Minister K Rosaiah demanded an explanation from Naidu who retorted that the firms directors would respond to the allegations and not the TDP. The report in Sakshi,owned by Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddys son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy,appeared at a time when the Congress government was facing allegations of favouring the family firms of disgraced Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju. This was followed by allegations that Heritage Foods sold its land to one of its sister firms Heritage Infra at less than the market price,causing losses to its shareholders. Naidu said the issue was raked up because after the Satyam scam the Congress government was facing allegations of favouritism and trying to protect the Raju family.