Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao has asked Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to examine three Hyderabad-based aerospace and defence firms, warning of the consequences if such companies end up supplying equipment to the armed forces.

Rama Rao made the appeal in a post on X, alleging that Hyderabad is becoming a hub for shell companies in the sector under the Congress government.

“God only can save India’s armed forces if these are the kinds that supply equipment,” he said.

He named Tesseract, which he linked to the Anumula family of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, and Raghava Aerospace, which he linked to the family of Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy. The third firm was Aindri Defence. He questioned the operations of all three.

“Of late, under the Congress government, Hyderabad seems to be acquiring the dubious distinction of being the hub for fake Aerospace and Defence shell companies,” he said.

Earlier allegations

The post is the latest in a series of attacks by Rama Rao on the government’s ties to the defence sector. On Tuesday, August 11, he alleged irregularities in the state’s land allotment to Tesseract Advanced Systems Pvt Ltd, which he claimed is owned by the Chief Minister’s brother, A Kondal Reddy. He questioned how land worth Rs 200 crore was given to the firm for Rs 7 crore, and claimed the company had a paid-up capital of just Rs 1 lakh and no employees at the time.

On Thursday, September 3, he took aim at the Chief Minister’s and the Revenue Minister’s families after the launch of Raghava Aerospace & Defence, sarcastically calling the two firms the ones that would provide the 2 lakh jobs promised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

The latest allegation follows his demand on Wednesday, October 14, for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe or an inquiry by a sitting judge into an alleged Rs 10,000 crore scam in the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd, in which he accused the Chief Minister of conspiring to privatise the state-run miner.