Jan. 27: The finance minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, and the government chief whip, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday demanded an explanation from the Telugu Desam president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, on what they termed as a mega scam involving Heritage Infra owned by him in fraudulent deals to the tune of more than Rs 35 crore.Addressing the media they alleged that Heritage Foods, owned by Mr Naidu and his family, duped investors to the tune of Rs 35 crore. The fraud which involved fudging of profits even though the firm was running in losses, transfer of land to a real estate firm floated by Heritage owners was like a Satyam sequel.Though Heritage Foods incurred a loss of Rs 35.04 crore during 2007-08, the balance sheet of the company showed a profit of Rs 35.98 crore during the financial year, with net profit of Rs 94 lakh. The company showed a profit of Rs 33.65 crore it earned by selling its share in the real estate firm and Rs 2.33 crore it earned by selling lands of the real estate firm.Giving details of the scam, Mr Rosaiah said Heritage Foods floated a subsidiary company Heritage Infra Developers Limited on Feb 15, 2006 with a paid-up capital of Rs 40 lakh. Heritage Foods held 51 per cent in the company. In the balance sheet released in 2007, Heritage Infra stated the company had no activities during the year. Interestingly, Heritage Foods sold 20.4 lakh shares at the rate of Rs 179.99 a share in spite of doing no business.
