VIJAYAWADA: A day after Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy read out a list of those involved in alleged ‘insider trading’ in the capital region, two of those named, Heritage Foods and APNRT society former president Vemuri Ravikumar denied the charges terming them baseless. In a release on Wednesday, Heritage Foods Ltd said it had begun efforts to acquire land in and around Vijayawada and Guntur in 2013 itself in view of its business requirements and that its board of directors had approved the decision to buy land in and around Guntur for setting up a dairy plant at their meeting on March 21, 2014.
It explained that land was purchased over a period of two months between July and August the same year. As per its release, Heritage Foods land in three transactions in Kantheru village in Guntur district, one of 7.21 acres of land, another of 2.46 acres and another of 4.55 acres but it cancelled the last transaction after finding out that there could be a potential dispute. As of now, the company holds 9.67 acres in Kantheru village. The land is closer to Guntur and is not part of the Amaravati capital which is 20 km away and hence, the allegation that Heritage purchased land illegally in Amaravati is baseless, it said.
Vemuri Ravikumar, who was named by Buggana as TDP leader Nara Lokesh’s associate, said he bought 6.3 acres in Amaravati region between 2004 and 2005 and subsequently, acquired 9.86 acres after the capital was announced in Amaravati.
Buggana had said in the Assembly that Ravikumar bought 25.68 acres by insider trading. Ravikumar also dared the government to prove he has business relations with Nara Lokesh. If it does, he said, he would return the same businesses to the government.