ED raid on Vaddiraju Ravichandra for possible FEMA violations

The Gayatri Group, for which Ravi is the promoter, is a leading black granite supplier to foreign countries, where there is very high demand. He made a foray into the granite business by starting coloured-granite quarrying operations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in 1992.

In his affidavit with the Election Commission for a Rajya Sabha bypoll in May this year, Ravi declared that he had assets worth ₹46 crore in the form of shares in Gayatri Granites and land in Telangana.

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Raids an aftermath of BJP’s Munugode loss?

The sudden raids on granite businesses, of which some were owned by the TRS leaders and their relatives, raised eyebrows because they are taking place immediately after the BJP lost the Munugode by-election to the TRS.

The ED and I-T raids are believed to be based on complaints lodged by Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

It was alleged that there was a scam of ₹749 crore in quarrying granite stones in Karimnagar in Telangana and exporting them abroad from the Kakinada port in AP.

In fact, former national executive member of the BJP, Perala Shekar Rao in a letter to the CBI dated 1 November, 2021, listed the names of nine companies he said were resorting to illegal mining and export of stone quarry minerals to foreign countries.

The companies he named were: Swetha Agencies, AS Shipping, JM Baxi and Co, Maithili Aditya Transport, KVK Energy, Aravind Granites, Sandhya Agencies, PSR Agencies, and Sri Venkateswara Granites. All were based out of Karimnagar.

He urged the CBI to inquire into the way these companies conducted their business, which he said was causing a huge loss of revenue to the government.

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