TDP Adda for Economic Offenders and Fraudsters: Here's the Proof!

The opposition TDP has made this election a contest between the rich and poor. The TDP-led opposition alliance has fielded several candidates who are accused of economic offences. The TDP has not only given tickets to these candidates but also ensured that their loyalists, who have crossed over to other parties, get the tickets too. These candidates have taken hundreds of crores of loan from various banks and have defaulted on repayments, 

These economic offenders are Ganta Srinivasa Rao (Bheemili constituency) and Raghu Rama Krishna Raju (Undi constituency) from TDP, CM Ramesh (Anakapalli Lok Sabha constituency) and Sujana Chowdary (Vijayawada West Assembly Constituency). Ramesh and Sujana were earlier with the TDP but joined the BJP ahead of elections. Together, these opposition candidates have taken loans approximately Rs 4,563 crores and are facing bank loan fraud cases. The central agencies like CBI and ED are investigating these cases. 

Raghu Rama Krishna Raju

TDP’s Undi candidate Raghu Rama Krishna Raju has been accused in a bank loan fraud case. He had availed a loan of Rs 1,383 crores from Punjab National Bank-led consortium for setting up the Ind-Barath Thermal Power company. Subsequently, he diverted the funds meant for setting up a 300 MW power plant in Uttara Kannada district to other accounts. As he failed to pay the interest on the loan amount, the consortium approached the CBI for loan recovery. 

After registering a case against Raju, the central agency conducted searches at Raju’s residence, companies and offices  at about 11 locations in Mumbai, Hyderabad and the West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh and seized several important files and hard disks in October 2020. Raju and his wife Kanumuru Rama Devi are directors of Ind-Barath Thermal Power Limited. 

Sujana Chowdary 

The BJP candidate is facing a local fraud case and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating it. He is accused of Rs 1.289 crores GST evasion and also used the GST returns filed fraudulently to raise loans of over Rs 700 crore. He is also accused of floating several shell firms. These companies created fake invoices worth Rs 1,289 crore and duped the banks by fraudulently availing Rs 700 loan. 

Sujana has also duped the foreign banks. He availed Rs 100 crore loan from Mauritius Commercial Bank and defaulted on repayment forcing the bank officials to approach Hyderabad court. 

CM Ramesh 

Income Tax officials conducted searches at the house and offices of CM Ramesh as the central agency started looking into the dubious financial transactions of Ritwik Projects Private Limited, a company owned by his family. The I-T officials reportedly found suspicious deals with companies and subcontractors. The officials zeroed in on an estimation of Rs 800 crore worth dubious transactions by Rithwik Projects Private Limited. Of the Rs 800 crore, clear evidence was found for the diversion of Rs 100 crore while the remaining Rs 700 crore were believed to be dubious.

Nearly Rs 100 crore were diverted to fake companies that have no presence in their registered addresses. The IT report indicates dubious transactions worth Rs 25 crore while Rs 74 crore were transferred to non-existent companies. In the last six years, EDCO India Pvt Ltd was paid Rs 12 crore in various transactions by CM Ramesh's companies. In its report, the IT dept noted that EDCO was used as a means to divert funds after discovering its transactions through Rithwik Properties' Accountant Sai Baba had no answers when questioned about the Rs 33 crore worth suspicious transactions. 

Ganta Srinivasa Rao 

Former TDP minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao has defaulted on repayment of a bank loan of Rs 390.7 crore from Indian Bank. He had availed the loan in the name of Pratyusha Resources and Infra Pvt Limited in Visakhapatnam. 

The Indian Bank has been fighting for five years to acquire his property after he defaulted on loan. Pratyusha firm has failed to repay the loan along with the interest. The bank has issued several notices to the TDP leader and recently issued a notice saying the bank would auction off his immovable properties located in Balayya Sastry Layout and Padmanabham mandal. 

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