Chandrababu's 1000 Crore Land Scam Gets Exposed, Telangana HC Directs Govt To Order CBI Probe

The Telangana High Court pronounced a remarkable verdict, dismissing the petition filed by IMG Academies Bharata Private Limited.. It stated that there was no violation of Article 14 as alleged and declared that the petition had no merit. The agreement could not be supported in any way. Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukantil, pronounced verdict on Thursday after an 18-year-long hearing. The court found fault with the decision of then state government led by Chandrababu Naidu in 2003.

Meanwhile, the Telangana High Court questioned the Telangana state government regarding whether it will order a CBI inquiry or if the court should initiate one. The bench posed this question to the state government during the hearing of a PIL filed on the same issue. The court emphasized that a decision should be made within a week.

Going into details, IMG Academies Bharat Private Limited was established on 5th August 2003 to train youth in sports. Four days after its establishment, the then Andhra Pradesh government led by Chandra Babu Naidu entered into an agreement (MoU) with IMG India. The MoU was made to make the youth of the state champions in sports. As a part of this agreement, it agreed to give 400 acres in Gachibowli Survey no. 25 of Serilingampally Mandal for developing sports academies.

Along with this agreement, another agreement was also made to handover another 450 acres in Mamidipalli survey number 99/1 of Sarurnagar mandal of Rangareddy. In addition, IMG has also promised to give an acre to 5 acres on road from Banjara Hills to Madhapur to build its international headquarters. In 2004, they handed over a sale deed of 400 acres of valuable land in Gachibowli for just 2 crore rupees.

In 2006, the state government made a rule to protect government assets before the 2007 Government Property Act. This law canceled the earlier agreement with IMG India and related sale deed. As per the Section 2 of the 2007 act, the government not only canceled the transactions but also returned IMG’s money with 12% interest each year. However, IMG filed a petition in the Telangana High Court against this law.

The Naidu government signed the deal without getting an approval from the cabinet. The land initially valued at Rs.13 lakhs per acre was sold to IMG India for just Rs. 50 thousand without a clear reason.

When the new government came into power, they decided to crack the shady deal and provide a compensation stating that the law doesn’t apply only to IMG. In 2007, the government made a law to protect government assets and wasn’t just for IMG but for various land deals. TheAdvocate General argued that this law came into effect after getting approval from the President.

However, the advocate for IMG argued that it’s not fair to single out IMG and insisted that the government doesn’t have the authority to cancel the agreement. The Telangana High Court upheld the constitutional validity of the Telangana Government Property (Preservation, Protection and Resumption) Act, 2007. Now, TDP leaders are caught off-guard. The HC has directed the state government to take a decision within a week and suggested it to order for a CBI probe into this shady land agreement.