Lulu Group Says Its Offer To Donate Rs 700 Crore For Kerala Flood Relief Is Fake news, Threatens Legal Action

Abu Dhabi based LuLu Group International which owns the LuLu hypermarket chain has denied reports of its billionaire chairman and managing director Yusuffali MA willing to donate Rs 700 crore toward Kerala flood relief if the Central Government refused a similar aid by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Manorama Online has reported.

Yusuffali has already pledged to donate Rs 5 crore towards flood relief in the state.

Recently Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had tweeted that UAE pledged aid of Rs 700 crore for the flood-ravaged state owing to their special relationship.

Following this, it was reported that the central government was likely to refuse such a foreign aid owing to the 2004 disaster aid policy set by the erstwhile UPA government.

The matter has seen yet another twist after UAE’s ambassador to India, Ahmed Albanna has said that his country had made no official announcement of any aid to Kerala.

Now as reported by Manorama, the LuLu group too has come out to term reports of its being a potential Rs 700 crore donor as fake news.

LuLu group’s communication department has been quoted as saying that it is mulling legal action against those who spread or reported this news.

The report also claims that it was Yusuffali who had informed Vijayan about the Rs 700 crore offer from the UAE government.