Hyderabad: Days after the allegations levelled by G Yuri Reddi against Ramoji Group, the business conglomerate on Thursday refuted them and posed striking questions as to why a man staying in Hyderabad had approached the CID in Andhra Pradesh instead of the Registrar of Companies or NCLT, Hyderabad or Telangana Police.
The conglomerate said the registration of the FIR on the basis of a complaint by Yuri Reddi, son of Gadireddi Jagannadha Reddi, a former investor in Margadarsi Chit Funds Pvt. Ltd (MCFPI) was another attempt by the Andhra government to target the Ramoji Group. Reddi, on Tuesday, had claimed that his family shares in Margadarsi Chit Funds were "changed by force" and "through threats" allegedly by Ramoji group chairman Ramoji Rao.
Ramoji Group refuted the allegations and said the AP CID had "fabricated one more grand story and engineered a complaint with a lot of efforts using G. Yuri Reddi as a pawn".
"As claimed by the complainant that he is staying at Noida, Uttar Pradesh and is staying at present in Hyderabad, he has been trapped by the AP government maliciously to engineer a complaint for lodging fresh FIR with the sole aim of defaming the Margadarsi Chit Fund Pvt Ltd (MCFPI ) and its Chairman Sri Ramoji Rao and Managing Director Ch. Sailaja. The complainant with ill motives, contrived a grand design to implicate and tarnish the image of the company colluding with APCID," Ramoji Group said in a statement issued on Thursday.
The whole complaint, it said, was "full of lies, imaginary allegations and is completely contrary to the facts of the case". Ramoji Group said there were several inconsistencies between the FIR lodged on October 10 this year and the original complaint of the complainant in 2017.
"MCFPI has replied to the company immediately, wherein he alleged he signed the transfer form (5H-4) inadvertently. After colluding with APCID, the complainant created a new storyline claiming that he signed the transfer deed at gunpoint which is utterly false and completely far from the truth," the Group said.
It added that Yuri Reddi and his brother Martin "were well received and management agreed to their proposals which have been checked by them through their counsel before they signed all the forms and collaborated by the email sent to the Chairman of MCFPL wherein the complainant expressed his gratitude to Ramoji Rao for accepting his offer of sale of shares".
Ramoji Group said Yuri Reddi was not illiterate to state that he does not have knowledge of shares and their value and that he was well informed before he signed all the papers consciously. The complainant, the Group further said in the statement, had deliberately twisted the facts the way AP CID wanted them for lodging their FIR for foisting malicious charges against the promoters of the company which had completely established its procedures and systems prudently over the last six decades.
"The complainant having got advice in the matter of shares transferred in the year 2016, should have approached the right forum under the law if at all he was aggrieved by the transfer of shares i.e. Registrar of Companies or NCLT, Hyderabad instead of APCID. The present complaint is clearly an afterthought registered at the advice and instigation of CID to malign and defame MCFPI," the statement added.
Ramoji Group said it was improbable to believe that the complainant suddenly discovered after seven years the share transfer and approached APCID instead of Telangana Police who are the competent officers under the law to investigate even as per the complainant's statement that he is a resident of Hyderabad and the fact that the alleged offence took place in Hyderabad. "It is apparent that the complaint is being tutored and misguided by APCID," Ramoji Group said in the statement.
It further said the company had fully complied with all the provisions of the Companies Act 2013 prudently before shares were transmitted to one of the siblings as requested by them through an affidavit. "Accordingly the complainant had encashed the cheque for accumulated dividends of Rs. 3974000 instantly. It is a fact that both the brothers have time and again been informed about the status of shares held by them and how unclaimed dividends have been held in the account as per law. The complainant is fully aware of the matter and did everything consciously during the year 2016 after duly consulting their counsels," it said.
The Group said that after performing the due procedure required under law, Yuri Rreddi "became greedy with the guidance from certain quarters and changed his mind for holding the cheque for a sum of Rs 288000 being sale consideration received from the transferee in the year 2016 for his own reasons and issued a letter to the company which had been promptly replied clearly clarifying the details and issues raised in his letter."
"He was completely silent all these seven years and is now trapped by APCID for foisting a fraudulent and frivolous case," the statement added.
The complainant, it said, is clueless as to why he came to press now after seven years, particularly in the state of AP but for joining APCID with ill motives and intentions to tarnish the image of the company from where he benefited with a huge amount for a small investment of Rs. 5000 in those days at the cost of promoters sweat and efforts.
"It is utterly and blatantly false to state that he signed a SH-4 share transfer form on the assumption of the transmission of shares. lt is a deliberate attempt to twist the facts suitably for his present complaint stating that his signatures are forged. In fact, the SH (a requisite form for the transfer of shares in a closely held company) was signed by him voluntarily to facilitate the transfer of 288 shares on his own without any coercion or influence whatsoever in 2015.
The contract for the purchase of shares is performed by both parties The transferor after consulting their counsel, the share transfer form in SH-4 has signed for an agreed sale consideration of Rs. 288000 which is paid by issuing a cheque by the transferee. The complainant had chosen for his own reasons, contrived a grand plan to blackmail promoters and played into the hands of APCID with criminal conspiracy to defame the promoters of the company for which you are liable for severe action legally," the statement added.
Ramoji Group accused Yuri Reddi of cheating the promoters and the company after having received a huge sum of Rs 39.74 lakh being accumulated dividends and also the sale consideration of Rs. 2.88 lakh. "At the instance of APCID, the complainant has deliberately ignored and suppressed the facts that both the brothers have signed an affidavit after duly consulting their counsel for the entire transaction of shares transmission and also share transfer effected during the year 2015 (5th October 2016)," it said.
The Company, the statement added, has initiated appropriate legal proceedings "to nip in the bud the abuse of process of law by Yuri Reddi and APCID".
Also read: Key directions to AP CID in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh High Courts in Margadarsi Chit Funds case
