Andhra Pradesh urges SC to lift High Court stay on CID probe on land scam

VIJAYAWADA: The State government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that a mega land scam was perpetrated in Amaravati and urged it to lift the stay granted by the Andhra Pradesh High Court on the CID probe against one A Sudhir, Brahmananda Reddy and others.

The State government has filed a special leave petition in the apex court appealing against the High Court order.

The allegations against the accused are that they had forced SC/ST persons to sell their lands before the land pooling scheme was executed in the capital.

The SC/ST persons were allegedly misled and told that the government would acquire their land without paying compensation or by paying meagre amount and if they did transfer their land to Brahmananda Reddy and others, they will at least receive some amount.

After an FIR was filed, Anne Sudhir, former tahasildar, filed a quash petition and investigation against him was stayed by the HC.

The state government’s arguments were presented by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and PS Narasimha.

The three-judge bench, which heard the arguments, deferred hearing to September 22 for final disposal. It said there would be no adjournments.

The respondent’s advocate pointed out that there were discrepancies in the translation of the FIR.

However, the bench observed that the allegations were reproduced even in the impugned order of the high court.

Therefore even if there were some changes in translation, that would be inconsequential, it said and directed both sides to submit documents, if any.