Rs 45 cr in bonds by infra firm founded by BJP MP, a hydropower project, and curious case of U-turns

Infrastructure firm Rithwik Projects Private Limited, and its founder and Rajya Sabha MP Chintakunta Munuswamy Ramesh, could be a study in coincidence.

In 2019, the MP had switched to the BJP from the Telugu Desam Party, just months after he was accused by the Income Tax department of siphoning off funds to the tune of Rs 74 crore in 2018. The defection, which had jolted the TDP, involved three other party MPs, came weeks after the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, and while TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu was in Europe.

Last year, just two weeks before Rithwik Projects purchased electoral bonds to the tune of Rs 5 crore, the Hyderabad-headquartered company was awarded a letter of contract for a hydroelectric power project in Congress-governed Himachal Pradesh on January 14. 

On March 23, SVJN Limited, a state-run clean energy PSU, inked a contract agreement worth Rs 1,098 crore for the same project. And three weeks later, Rithwik Projects again donated money, this time with bonds to the tune of Rs 40 crore.

Meanwhile, the Himachal project – the 382 MW Sunni Dam Hydro Electric Project – is scheduled to be completed by November 27. It is located in the Mandi and Shimla districts of Himachal Pradesh along the Satluj river.

Rithwik deals in areas ranging from mining and irrigation to highways and infrastructure. The company’s portfolio includes projects such as a mini township for Kashmiri migrants and the Paleru earth dam.

Ramesh claims to have no involvement in the affairs of Rithwik since 2012. However, his brother is still the executive director and his son Rithwik as the lead of operations.

The income tax department had in 2018 accused Rithwik Projects of siphoning off Rs 74 crore through untraceable transactions and of dubious bills to the tune of Rs 25 crore. Ramesh’s properties in Hyderabad and Kadapa were searched with tax sleuths claiming to have seized several documents.

BJP’s complaint against Ramesh in Rajya Sabha, and TDP’s U-turn

Months before Ramesh had joined the BJP in 2019, the party’s spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao had written to the Rajya Sabha ethics committee to seek action against the MP over the income tax department’s allegations of fraudulent transactions.

Rao had also counted Ramesh as one of the “Andhra Mallyas” – a reference to fugitive Vijay Mallya. 

Ramesh’s former party TDP had pulled out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in 2018 over the Narendra Modi government’s position on the demand for special status to Andhra Pradesh. In 2019, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the NDA was permanently shut for TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu.

But earlier this month, the TDP returned to the NDA’s fold ahead of the Lok Sabha elections to “help in reaching the aspirations of the people of Andhra Pradesh”.

Ramesh is still a Rajya Sabha member with his tenure set to end next month. And the income tax case against him is pending.

The BJP MP now wants to contest the Lok Sabha election from Visakhapatnam.

Last year, a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms had mentioned his name among MPs with the highest declared wealth in Andhra Pradesh. Ramesh had declared assets to the tune of Rs 258 crore.

In 2018, Rithwik Projects faced a fine of over Rs 2 crore for alleged illegal mining. A district vigilance officer had earlier told The New Indian Express the firm was lifting gravel and metal in the guise of using it for the Vamsadhara water project but were selling it to private parties instead.

Update at 4 pm on March 22: Of the Rs 40 crore which the BJP MP’s family-run company had spent on bonds weeks after inking the dam contract, Rs 30 crore went to the Congress and the rest to the JD-S – a month before the Karnataka assembly polls.

This report is part of a collaborative project involving three news organisations – Newslaundry, Scroll, The News Minute – and several independent journalists.

Project Electoral Bond includes Aban Usmani, Anand Mangnale, Anisha Sheth, Anjana Meenakshi, Ayush Tiwari, Azeefa Fathima, Basant Kumar, Dhanya Rajendran, Jayashree Arunachalam, Joyal George, M Rajshekhar, Maria Teresa Raju, Nandini Chandrashekar, Neel Madhav, Nikita Saxena, Parth MN, Pooja Prasanna, Prajwal Bhat, Prateek Goyal, Pratyush Deep, Ragamalika Karthikeyan, Raman Kirpal, Ravi Nair, Sachi Hegde, Shabbir Ahmed, Shivnarayan Rajpurohit, Siddhartha Mishra, Supriya Sharma, Sudipto Mondal, Tabassum Barnagarwala and Vaishnavi Rathore.