NALGONDA: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday rejected the plea of All India Agri Gold Association which sought transfer of a property of about 39 acres in Vijayawada in return for the deposits made by it to the scam-hit company.
The bench, comprising justice V Ramasubramanian and SV Bhatt, made it clear that it was not in favour of transferring landed properties of Agri Gold but would disburse the money realised through auction of properties among the depositors.
The bench was dealing with a PIL filed by Agrigold Depositors and Agents Welfare Association seeking a CBI or ED probe into the scam and to provide relief to lakhs of depositors across seven states, and has been conducting the auction for the bids/sealed tenders received in response to a notification given by the special investigating officer of AP state.
When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, advocate Pattabhi, appearing for the All India Agri Gold Association, told the court that there were seven lakh depositors in their association and an amount of ` 30 crore was to be paid to them. He urged the court to grant transfer of the company’s 39-acre property in Vijayawada for the purpose.
While rejecting the plea, the bench said that there was a need to pay the amount to another 25 lakh depositors apart from the seven lakhs submitted by the counsel. It made it clear that the court was interested in providing relief to all the depositors.The bench posted the matter to January 30 for conduct of auction of properties.