Lokesh Ties Himself In Knots While Explaining How His Assets Grow By 2178.20 % In Five Months

A day after media revealed how Nara Lokesh Babu's assets grow by a whopping 2178.20 per cent in just a matter of five months, TDP heir apparent presented a weak defence about his asset growth.

All these years, Babu family presented only purchase cost

In a carefully calibrated presentation to the media, he said since 2011, he has been presenting the purchase value of his assets and shares and not their market value. He said for the election affidavit, he disclosed the market value of the same assets. But, he did not explain why his wife Brahmani, who too holds similar shares, did not see a similar rise in her assets and how the value of the assets of his son's Devansh has actually gone down during the same period.

It may be recalled that the affidavit of Nara Lokesh showed that the total value of his asets is Rs 330 crore, including Rs 273.84 crore in the form of shares in Heritage Foods, fixed assets worth Rs 18 crore and ancestral property worth Rs 38.52 crore.

But, on October 19, 2016, he declared his assets to the public. The total value of the property then was a mere Rs 14.50 crore, including Rs 2.52 crore in the form of Heritage shares, Rs 1.64 crore worth shares in other companies and a car worth Rs 93 lakh. This means his assets grew from Rs 14.50 crore to Rs 330 crore in a matter of just five months.

How Heritage Share Price Zoomed After Babu Became CM?

Lokesh also claimed that the value of his assets grew as the value of his shares has gone up. But, YSRCP spokesperson Ambati Rambabu pointed out that Heritage share was valued at Rs 50 in January 2004 and grow to Rs 220 in January 2014. By March in the same year, the share value went down to Rs 200. But, after Chandrababu assumed power, the share value soared to Rs 1134. He said this showed that the share price was linked to Chandrababu's power and indicated corruption.

He said all these years, the annual declaration of the assets by Chandrababu and Lokesh was nothing but a hogwash. "They were in fact duping the people of the state," Rambabu said.

Quite interestingly, post the sale of Heritage Foods' retail business to Future Retail Ltd in November 2016, the Heritage now owns just 3.65 per cent stakes worth Rs 295 crore. Despite this, Lokesh Babu's share value has bafflingly gone up from Rs 2.52 crore to 273.84 crore.