Osmania University land fraud case to be heard by trial court, says Telangana high court

HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court on Monday said that the case against a cooperative housing society for selling 3,900 square yards of Osmania University (OU) land will now be decided by a trial court after the state informed that the police have concluded their probe and also filed a charge sheet against the accused.
The case had reached the HC after a PIL accused the OU of looking the other way while varsity land was grabbed by Tulasi Cooperative House Building Society during lockdown.
On Monday, a bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy said that as the process of law was set in motion, it would be better if the matter was left to police and the trial court.
Advocate general BS Prasad earlier informed the court that the police named five accused in the detailed charge sheet filed before trial court.
"An ACP-level officer headed the probe into the scam and they could bring out all the facts regarding the issue," he said.
Police had taken up the probe after petitioner Poladi Ramana Rao, a research scholar, filed the PIL accusing Tulasi cooperative society of fraud.
The society had purchased 4,800 square yards in 1980 in the vicinity of OU. When some legal issues cropped up, it had fought a court battle against OU and won the title. Later, it converted the land into 14 equal plots and sold it in 1980 itself. However, during lockdown the society sold the adjacent 3,900 square yards plot even though it no longer had any land left in the area, the PIL alleged.
The counsel for the society objected to the ongoing PIL in the HC and also the police probe, claiming that the title of land has to be decided by a civil court and not police. The state, however, said that it could not keep quiet in light of the fraud. Following a complaint from the OU registrar and the PIL in HC, an FIR was registered and a probe was conducted.
Hyderabad: The Telangana high court on Monday said that the case against a cooperative housing society for selling 3,900 square yards of Osmania University (OU) land will now be decided by a trial court after the state informed that the police have concluded their probe and also filed a charge sheet against the accused.
The case had reached the HC after a PIL accused the OU of looking the other way while varsity land was grabbed by Tulasi Cooperative House Building Society during lockdown.
On Monday, a bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy said that as the process of law was set in motion, it would be better if the matter was left to police and the trial court.
Advocate general BS Prasad earlier informed the court that the police named five accused in the detailed charge sheet filed before trial court.
"An ACP-level officer headed the probe into the scam and they could bring out all the facts regarding the issue," he said.
Police had taken up the probe after petitioner Poladi Ramana Rao, a research scholar, filed the PIL accusing Tulasi cooperative society of fraud.
The society had purchased 4,800 square yards in 1980 in the vicinity of OU. When some legal issues cropped up, it had fought a court battle against OU and won the title. Later, it converted the land into 14 equal plots and sold it in 1980 itself. However, during lockdown the society sold the adjacent 3,900 square yards plot even though it no longer had any land left in the area, the PIL alleged.
The counsel for the society objected to the ongoing PIL in the HC and also the police probe, claiming that the title of land has to be decided by a civil court and not police. The state, however, said that it could not keep quiet in light of the fraud. Following a complaint from the OU registrar and the PIL in HC, an FIR was registered and a probe was conducted.