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India Cements Ltd has said it was not involved in any wrongdoing with respect to its investment and subsequent sale in Bharathi Cements. It may be noted, reports stated that investigating agencies may question India Cements for holding a stake in Bharathi Cements, promoted by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy.
N Srinivasan, vice chairman and MD, said, “We saw a good opportunity considering their (Bharathi Cement) location and we also had a plan to increase our stake, but they found a buyer who offered a better price and we have booked a profit of around Rs 25 crore through its sale”.
The company had invested around Rs 95 crore in Bharathi Cements and exited two years ago. Asked whether the company would exit from Jagan-owned Jagati Publications that runs Sakshi TV and Sakshi newspaper, Srinivasan said,“It was not that we were interested in the publication business. We were only interested in cement. However, they offered all three as bouquet. On the whole, we have invested Rs 135 crore in these businesses.”
ICL’s Rs 40 crore investment in the publication house is on the radar of the Central Bureau of Investigation, which had alleged that India Cements pumped money into Jagan firms in return for business favours.
It was alleged that the investments were made in lieu for provisioning of water from the Krishna river to India Cements’ Andhra Pradesh factories.
Srinivasan clarified the issues were unrelated since the plant was getting water even before YSR was in power (2004-09), and continues to get it even now. Also, the water has been allocated to all industries and it did not pay anything for this. The company had also sought a mining licence from the Andhra Pradesh government, which was not considered for many years now.
