Attack on Ambanis’ outlets may be result of Congress feud

NEW DELHI: Less than a day after retail outlets owned by the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, were attacked by YSR loyalists across Andhra Pradesh following the telacast by a Telugu news channel of a report alleging foul play in the death of the former chief minister, the Centre was confronted with disturbing pieces of information which, taken together, suggested that the assault on the business establishments late last night could be the result of factional infighting within the Congress’ state unit.

The attack on the business outlets owned by the two Ambani brothers, it is felt, were pre-meditated and orchestrated by a section of the state Congress leadership. No sooner had the report been telecast, attacks were reported simultaneously from several places in Andhra Pradesh, including Hyderabad.

The Congress, however, tried to play it safe, inisisting that it was a “sensitive issue,’’ and that the investigative agencies have to look into it. `` We are awaiting a detailed information ,’’ party spokesman Shakeel Ahmad said in response to persistent queries. The report telecast by TV5, which was attributed to a Russian website, alleged that the Ambani brothers were behind the helicopter crash in which Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was killed on September 2 last.

The Andhra police have filed a case against a Telugu news channel over the report, and have already begun their probe. They were in the process of collecting evidence, including video tapes of the news footage beamed by TV5. Mukesh-led Reliance Industries, in the meanwhile, have denied the allegations and called them `` malicious’’ and `motivated’’ and said that it was the “dirty handiwork of our business rivals in cohoots with TV5.’’

The Anil Ambani-led Reliance group too joined in the condemnation. ``A malicious and criminal disinformation campaign has been engaged into by our corporate rivals leading to substantial loss and damage to our several offices and businesses of Reliance ADA Group in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday evening,’’ a statement issued by the group said, adding, `` We are shocked to see our corporate rivals stooping down to new levels of desperation by engaging in such imaginative and baseless rumour-mongering.’’

“We are confident that the authorities would take appropriate action against those corporate elements engaging in such criminal acts of disinformation,’’ it said further. According to a senior police official, a case has been registered suo-motu against the Telugu news channel TV5. Andhra Pradesh DGP R R Girish Kumar termed the attacks on Reliance outlets as “unfortunate’’ and warned that they will deal tough with arsonists.