Tirupati, June 18: The seven crore rupees of cash seized from two vehicles last night at Kadiri in Anantpur district brought a TDP leader from Tirupati, P Haribabu, into the political glare on Thursday, but the man said the money belonged to his friends who could account for every rupee of it.
After news of the seizure broke, IT sleuths raided Haribabu’s house in Tirupati to investigate the source of the money. The TDP man met the Anantapur SP and told him the money belonged to his friends who were driving to Tirupati from Hospet to buy tippers.
Another unhappy aspect of the story for the TDP was the recovery of vehicle number plates that TDP president Chandrababu Naidu uses when he tours Tirupati.
Though the police dismissed this as a matter of no consequence, the Congress jumped to the conclusion that the money belonged to the TDP and was illgotten. Income Tax men raided Haribabu’s residence in Vidyanagar colony in Tirupati while he was away in Anantapur. The search continued till late into Thursday night. The officials were tightlipped about what they found.
Police were carrying out a routine check of vehicles at Kadiri when they stumbled on wads of cash in two vehicles a Safari and a Scorpio. Police took the money to the police station and questioned the occupants of the vehicles Peram Ramakrishnama Naidu, Venkateswarlu, Venkataramana and the drivers of the two vehicles but found their explanations unconvincing.
As allegations flew thick and fast, Haribabu met Anantapur SP M K Sinha and told him the two vehicles were his but not the money. Nor was it Chandrababu Naidu’s. As for the Naidu’s number plates, he said they had fallen out of the TDP president’s vehicle when he was last here and he had picked them up and kept them in his car.
Haribabu said the money belonged to his friends – Basavaraju and Prakash Kumar Desai, owners of Sairam Associates and Venkateshwara Logistics — who are in the iron ore business in Hospet.
Prakash Desai had withdrawn Rs 4 crore and Basavaraju Rs 3 crore from the Hospet branch of the SBI on Wednesday and they were driving to Tirupati to purchase tippers when the police intercepted the vehicles.
Haribabu’s profile: Peram Hari Babu is the son of a small farmer from Govardhanagiri in Pichatur mandal in Chittoor district.
They moved to Tirupati about 10 years ago and started a wholesale rice shop there. Later, Haribabu and a friend opened a lodge near the Tirupati railway station and got into distribution of consumer products.
His marriage to a woman from a well-to-do family from Tamil Nadu provided him the much-needed financial backing in his initial days in business. The turning point in his life came when he entered real estate in 2004 just in time for the boom. Within a short time, the suave and energetic Haribabu developed contactss with political leaders and important people in the pilgrim town.
Boosted by the big money, he expanded to Bangalore and Hyderabad.
He joined the TDP at the Mahanadu in 2007 and soon attracted the attention of Chandrababu Naidu.
He reportedly donated a huge amount of money to the party for the conduct of its Mahanadus and tried in vain to become Telugu Yuvatha Chittoor district president.
Later he got the secretary’s post.
Within three years, Haribabu became close to many top leaders and claimed proximity to Chandrababu Naidu and his son Lokesh. That was not too popular with senior leaders in the party. He tried in vain for the TDP ticket for the Chandragiri Assembly seat in 2009.
He made his mark with high-profile publicity, advertisements in newspapers and hoarding, etc.
——-Agencies