Hyderabad: Police raided media baron Ramoji Rao’s firm Margadarsi Financiers office on Wednesday and claimed they were looking for documents related to financial irregularities against the firm.
Rao owns and operates some of country’s biggest flourishing businesses, including Margadarsi Chit Fund, Eenadu newspaper, ETV and Ramoji Film City near Hyderabad.
Rao’s tiff with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YSR Reddy is imminent and has sparked several controversies till date. The chief minister faces serious allegations of intimidating the press.
This time a police raid has evoked strong protest from YSR Reddy’s main opposition TDP, which termed it as an "assault on the press freedom".
"It is a clear an act of vindictiveness. The Congress government here and at the Centre will be responsible for the consequences," TDP supremo and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said.
Armed with a search warrant issued by a local court, a team of 17 CID officials went to the head office of Margadarsi Financiers at Saifabad and carried out the search to obtain details about its depositors and accounts.
The raid came nearly a week after the government-instituted inquiry concluded that the firm had violated the provisions of the RBI Act by collecting huge deposits from public.
Chandrababu Naidu had earlier said in an interview that he saw no merit in the Rajasekhara Reddy Government's argument that it was perfectly legitimate to ask the non-media businesses of Eenadu group chairman Ramoji Rao to explain infringements of the law.
The State Government, he pointed out, had no role at all in Margadarsi and it was for the RBI to intervene if it committed any irregularities.
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