Click to play videoNew Delhi: Former Satyam chairperson B Ramalinga Raju was an IT czar and a land baron too.
He and his family has bought close to 6500 acres through Maytas Properties, making them one of India's top 10 landlords. But for their real estate empire the Raju's needed money and Satyam was allegedly milked for it.
In his quest for land, Raju allegedly made use of his closeness to Chandrababu Naidu, when he was Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister, and current Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
With Raju now under arrest for allegedly defrauding Satyam, Reddy and Chandrababu have moved away and are pointing fingers at each other.
Reddy says he had no knowledge about Raju's fraud at Satyam. "None of us expected a thing like this," he says.
Naidu claims the Reddy government has given Raju family's companies projects worth Rs 38,000 crore.
Maytas Properties and Maytas Infrastructure, companies promoted by the Raju family, were awarded several prestigious government projects. These include the Hyderabad Metro rail, the Machilipatnam port project and airport projects in Andhra Pradesh and Bangalore.
Now there are allegations that the projects were allotted without following norms. In several instances, as former economic affairs secretary EAS Sarma alleges, competitive bidding procedures were not followed.
Sarma he complained to the Government about the land allotments given to Maytas but was ignored. “As soon as I saw the land allotment, I gave a notice to the Government saying this whole thing is illegal, irregular and improper,” he alleged.
“While I was doing this and opposing the Hyderabad Metro project, Satyam was trying to buy Maytas group. I wrote a letter to the Secretary of Company Affairs (Ministry) and also to the SEBI Chairperson,” said Sarma.
Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan too had questioned the Hyderabad Metro Rail project bagged by Maytas and called it a future political scam. He had questioned the allotment of land to the private consortium. “Transparency in the selection process has been lost,” Sreedharan had alleged.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
TOP NEWS
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
