AP CID attaches Rs 793.5 cr movable properties of Ramoji Rao’s Margadarsi

AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (AP CID) has attached movable properties worth Rs 793.51 crores of media baron and businessman Cherukuri Ramoji Rao in connection with the Margadarsi Chit Fund Private Limited (MCFPL) irregularities case.

The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday issued ad-interim orders through GO Ms. No. 104, attaching movable properties of the company worth Rs 793,50,72,460 as per the request of CID additional DG. The GO said that the ad-interim orders were issued to safeguard the interests of the depositors of the company under the provisions of Andhra Pradesh Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act, 1999.

The attached movable assets include large sums of liquid cash, bank deposits and investments in mutual funds. Ramoji Rao is the director while his daughter-in-law Sailaja Kiran Cherukuri is the managing director of Margadarsi Chit Fund Private Limited. The AP CID, in its case, accuses Ramoji Rao, Sailaja Kiran and several foremen and auditors of criminal conspiracy. The CID claims to have identified several irregularities in Margadarsi including illegal diversion of depositors’ money, running chit schemes in violation of the RBI guidelines and inability to pay back the funds to the subscribers when they demanded.

The AP CID has also alleged that deposits collected from the chits business had been diverted through the company’s corporate office in Hyderabad for their investment, illegally, in mutual funds, thereby making unlawful gains from depositors’ money.