HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI: For a government that claims only bureaucrats above board will be appointed to senior positions, it came as an embarrassment on Friday as education secretary SN Mohanty appeared before a special CBI court in Hyderabad along with 11 other accused in a disproportionate assets case against YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Charge-sheeted in the Indu-AP Housing Board scam case, Mohanty had to rush to Hyderabad to appear before the court after the 11th charge-sheet in the disproportionate assets case was filed against Jagan. Mohanty is accused number 3, immediately after Jagan and his auditor Vijay Sai Reddy.
HRD officials said Mohanty was set to return to Delhi by evening. “Only senior officials know the reason why the secretary had to go to Hyderabad. We have been asked to send files to his residence,” one official said. Principal special judge N Balayogi, who recorded Mohanty’s presence along with the other accused, directed all of them to appear again on January 29 next year. Jagan was exempted from appearing in the case in view of the ongoing winter session of Andhra Pradesh assembly.
According to the chargesheet, Mohanty, as head of AP housing board, facilitated loot of 135 acres of land worth Rs 1500 crore in Greater Hyderabad instead of acting as the ‘guardian of public assets’.
The CBI filed the chargesheet in the case on September 9, 2014, charging all the accused with offences like cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust and also under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. Besides Jagan, his adutor and Mohanty, the others named in the charge-sheet are industrialist I Syam Prasad Reddy, YV Subba Reddy, V V Krishna Prasad, M/s Chidco Pvt Ltd, M/s Vasantha Projects Pvt Ltd, M/s Indu Eastern Province Pvt Ltd (A10), Jitendra Virwani, Embassy Realtors, Indu Royal Homes Pvt Ltd and Carmel Asia Holdings Ltd owned by Y S Jagan. Except Jagan, all the other accused made a personal appearance in the court on Friday as it was the first hearing.
According to CBI, industrialist Syam Prasad Reddy, MD of Indu Projects Ltd, had carted away more than 135 acres of prime government land worth Rs 1,500 crore in Greater Hyderabad when late YS Rajasekhara Reddy was the CM in the guise of developing villas in a joint venture with the AP Housing Board. Syam Prasad Reddy did not construct any villas but made some investments in firms belonging to YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy, the chargesheet said.
CBI unravelled the ‘deceitful ways’ through which the authorities under the YSR regime doled out 65 acres of prime government land in Kukatpally at just Rs 1.5 crore per acre to Indu Projects, while the actual land price was twenty times more. In Gachibowli, 21 acres were given away at just Rs 45 lakh per acre. Another 50 acres in Bandlaguda was given away to Indu for a mere Rs 65 lakh per acre. Since Indu did not possess any required expertise to build villas, Embassy Realtors and Unity Infra were shown as part of the Indu consortium with an ulterior motive to ensure selection in the pre-determined tender process, the CBI has contended. Once the project was awarded to Indu, the so-called consortium partners simply disappeared, it said.
TOI | Dec 20, 2014
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