Linking Larry Summers to YSR death

That post,dated September 3, the day after Reddy’s chopper went missing,alleged that Reddy died after he publicly criticized Mukesh Ambani — calling him Summers’s “oligarch-friend” — and his mother for their ongoing family feud involving Krishna-Godavari gas basin.

“Ah,Y.S.,you shouldn’ta attacked their mother. Next thing you know…Reddy’s deady,” Ames said in his blog.

Ames now says he was merely speculating on the “mysterious” death of former chief minister.

In response to an email sent by The Indian Express,Ames said he was “flattered by all the attention” his article on the web site (exiledonline.com) has got.

In a subsequent entry on the site,he said: “This has to be the single weirdest episode in my journalism career…I caused a mass riot in India…the class war is on…”

So who is Ames? He launched a bi-weekly English newspaper in Russia in 1997 that focused on political gossip and criticism of pop culture. It was forced to shut down in 2008 because of its consistent criticism of the Russian government and its policies.

After the closure,Exiled moved online and while it has contributors from various part of the globe,Ames has largely shifted his focus on writing against the US.

Last August,Ames kicked off a series focusing on people close to Larry Summers,the director of the National Economic Council of US President Barack Obama,and this followed a detailed post on Ambani,on whose company’s board Summers served as an international director. In his post,Ames claimed Summers was paid $187,000 by Ambani for doing “nothing”.

In his email to The Indian Express,Ames said: “So tell me what the hell is going on in that state politically that could cause a four-month old blog entry on Larry Summers’ evil friends to spark a night of wild rioting in Andhra Pradesh?”

TV5,the Telugu channel that aired the report based on this post,demanded a probe into the alleged Ambani hand in Reddy’s death.

“One of our crime reporters was researching on a story when he chanced upon this post. We checked the history of Exiled and found out that it was once a well-known Russian publication. So we decided to do a report based on the suspicion raised by them,” said B Surendra Nath,vice chairman,Shreya Broadcasting,the company behind TV5.

Nath,though,clarified that the channel did not make any allegations on its own account. “We merely quoted what the Exiled said.”

The report provoked attacks on personnel and property of Reliance Industries.

The company,immediately,issued a statement condemning the incident and said it would seek a criminal enquiry into the incident. It also alleged “the dirty handiwork of our business rivals in cahoots with TV5”.

The police,meanwhile,arrested several people including two TV5 editors who were released on bail today.