The Hindu : National : Rajasekhara Reddy dares Naidu to take him to court

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Monday, Feb 19, 2007
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National

National

Rajasekhara Reddy dares Naidu to take him to court

"What the Government has done [on Margadarsi Financiers] is as per law. The Government has only done its duty."

Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has said that the reason why he and his family possessed 310 acres of `assigned' land for almost 30 years without surrendering them is because they were ignorant of the facts.

According to a CNN-IBN press release, in an interview with Karan Thapar broadcast on the programme `Devil's Advocate' on Sunday, the Chief Minister said:

"Ignorance of fact is no crime. The moment I came to know that a particular land when traced back to the 1905 record of ryots could be assigned land I immediately made all the members of my family to come forward and surrender this land voluntarily ... This land was not purchased by me. It was purchased by my father thirty years back ... The moment the fact was brought to my notice I surrendered it. The fact was never brought to my notice [earlier]."

Ignorance the excuse

Asked whether he was ignorant of the facts, Dr. Reddy said: "Absolutely."

So ignorance is your excuse?" "Yes it is," the Chief Minister said.

Specifically responding to the fact that Chandrababu Naidu, Leader of the Opposition, had written to the Prime Minister claiming Dr. Reddy violated six separate laws in Andhra Pradesh, including the Land Reforms Act of 1973 and the Assigned Lands Act of 1977, the Chief Minister said:

"I request Chandrababu Naidu to jolly well file complaints in the urban courts of law and prove that I've done something wrong. I'm challenging him to take me to any court of his choice."

During the course of the interview, he repeated this challenge four more times.

No case

Asked why, given the serious allegations made against him, he had not stepped aside and asked the Kadappa Collector, where the lands are located, to decide whether prosecution was warranted, Dr. said: "If there was at least a prima facie case against me I could do that. But there isn't ... Everyday Chandrababu Naidu goes on alleging something or the other. If I go on resigning for everything and anything he alleges I'll have to resign in 365 days 365 times."

Questioned about his own statement in the Assembly on December 14 that his Idupulapaya Estate, after surrendering 310 acres, still retained around 180 acres of temple, tank, government waste, assigned and rasta land, which has additionally been surrounded by a compound wall, the Chief Minister used the occasion to level his second challenge at Mr. Naidu:

"If there's anything wrong with these 180 acres let Chandrababu Naidu go to any relevant court in the land and take action against me. Unless there's a prima facia case, why should I resign?"

Declaration of shares

Dr. Reddy denied Opposition allegations that he had failed to reveal in his election affidavit of 2004 the fact that he was a shareholder in Y.S. Raja Reddy Plantations Pvt. Ltd. and Raja Reddy Resorts Pvt. Ltd., two companies which surrendered assigned land in December.

"The total quantum of shares has been mentioned. It's not necessary that I should mention A company or B company or each and every company, he said.

Dr. Reddy was also questioned about the 997 acres at Kundur which he separately surrendered in January. Asked about Opposition allegations that the majority of this land was agricultural, contrary to his claim that it was unfit for cultivation, Dr. Reddy levelled his third challenge against Chandrababu Naidu: "The Opposition is totally wrong. I challenge the Opposition — once again — to go to court."

Error possible

However, when questioned about Opposition claims that he has, on the one hand, declared the land at Kundur as non-agricultural land for land ceiling purposes but declared for income tax purposes the income from this land as agricultural, the Chief Minister seemed to accept that an error may have been made. An extract from this part of the interview:

Chief Minister: "At the point of time I don't know or didn't know what has been filed in income tax."

Karan Thapar: "So, once again, you're ignorant of what you're filing in income tax?"

Chief Minister: "About this particular land because I own so many lands in so many places."

Karan Thapar: "Ah! You're so rich, you have so much land in so many places, you don't know what you're talking about?"

Chief Minister: "Again, I'm telling you, whatever has been filed in income tax has been filed. But if there's anything wrong in any of the filings or declarations again I challenge the Opposition to go to the court. It's the fourth time I'm challenging him in this interview to go to court."

Dr. Reddy denied that either he or his family or their companies owned benami land in Andhra Pradesh. He was specifically questioned about Opposition allegations that land held in Chintalapalli Village, Vemula Mandal, Kadappa District, Survey no. 154 (180 acres) and Mayalapalli Village, Railway Koduru Mandal, Kadappa District, Survey nos. 1215 / 1217 / 1219 / 1220 / 1221 / 1225 (150 acres) was benami land owned by him or his family. He denied that his family had any benami holdings and once again challenged the Opposition to go to court:

"To the best of my knowledge whatever has been done nothing is unlawful. I only want to say that. If at all there's anything unlawful let Chandrababu Naidu agitate about this in court."

Margadarsi issue

Dr. Reddy was questioned about allegations made by the press and by the Opposition that he tried to intimidate Ramaji Rao and his finance company, Margadarsi Financiers, because their newspaper Eenadu levelled serious charges of corruption against his Government and his family in the outer ring road scandal.

"This is totally unfounded. Its totally baseless ... I'm not here to intimidate anyone ... when the allegations [against my family] were there I immediately constituted a CBI inquiry, I constituted a judicial inquiry. If at all there was anything for me or my family or my Government to hide why would I do all of this?"

The Chief Minister was questioned about his decision to appoint a special advisor and a CID inquiry to investigate Margadarsi Financiers despite the fact that the Reserve Bank was already looking into the matter.

He was asked if this was done to create a sense of panic and a run on the finances of Margadarsi Financiers. He replied:

"Do you mean to say that if Mr. Ramaji Rao has done something illegal and it's brought to the notice of the Government, the Government should not act against him? What Government has done is as per law. The Government has only done its duty. Its nothing less and nothing more."

(The interview was broadcast on CNN-IBN at 8.30 p.m. on Sunday and will be repeated at 4.30 p.m. on Monday.)

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