HYDERABAD: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Friday told the Legislative Assembly that Dharani portal — the integrated land revenue records management system introduced by the BRS regime — was handled by private firms which were given complete access to sensitive information such as land transaction bank accounts and Aadhaar, and also to people involved in criminal cases and to some who operated from tax havens like Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands.
“None of the individuals who maintained the Dharani portal were Indians. These people were involved in criminal cases in other countries, and the sensitive data of Telangana farmers was in their hand,” the chief minister said during a discussion on The Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights in Land) Bill, 2024. He said that Dharani was handled by not just one foreign country, but many including tax havens.
Accusing the BRS of creating a ruckus in the House to avoid a discussion on Bhu Bharati Bill which is aimed at addressing the land woes of the people, the chief minister said that he was ready to discuss and debate the Formula-E race case “anywhere”, including the BRS office.
“To understand the gravity of this crime, one needs to study all the (criminal) laws. As the trust of people was breached and they were betrayed, the people should think about what kind of investigation should be conducted,” he said.
Dharani transactions done from Vijayawada, Delhi, Bengaluru, says CM
The chief minister reeled off the names of the companies that were given access to Dharani portal — IL&FS, eCentric Solutions Pvt Ltd belonging to Sridhar Gadhi, and Wissen Infotech jointly won the tenders to develop and maintain Dharani portal. He said that the then chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao did not blacklist IL&FS which has a track record of insolvency and criminal activities.
Revanth said that Falcon SG Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Singapore-based Falcon Investments acquired 99% stake in Terracis Technologies Ltd (TTL) from IL&FS. He said that the remaining 1% stake was held by Sridhar Gadhi, who became the CEO of TTL.
Five different companies — Sparrow Investments, GW Sky, Hill Brooks Investments, Paradigme Innovations and Quantela Inc acquired stakes in Falcon Investments (Singapore), the chief minister said, adding that Gateway Fund-2, which has roots in Caymans Island, acquired 100% stakes in Sparrow Investments. He added that the roots of Hill Brooks Investments were traced to the British Virgin Islands.
“Sensitive data that was supposed to be accessible to only the Revenue department and land owners was given to people involved in economic offences in the pretext of running a digital portal,” the chief minister said, adding that this was done despite the fact that the NIC of the Central government, and the CGG of the state, having the technology to develop and maintain the portal.
In another sensational revelation, he said that Dharani was operated from Vijayawada, Delhi, Bengaluru and North Eastern states, among several other places, even between 9 pm and 6 am. “Who does registrations at night, and under what law? We don’t know land transactions were done even from foreign shores,” the chief minister said.
He accused KCR of being involved in economic offences as he entrusted Dharani to foreign entities which acted in contravention to the rules framed under the contractual agreement. “The private companies that maintained Dharani portal were given complete access to the portal. They can change any land records, owner name, extent of land,” the chief minister said.
Giving an example of the irregularities, he said that 100 acres of Bhoodan land was misappropriated in Timmapur of Rangareddy district, (the native village of Union Minister G Kishan Reddy). Stating that the BRS regime didn’t act despite Kishan lodging a complaint, the chief minister said that thousands of acres were misappropriated using Dharani portal.
“Is this what you (KCR) developed using the intellect gained by studying 80,000 books?” Revanth asked.
Reacting to the BRS demand for a discussion on the Formula-E race case, the chief minister pointed out that pink party leaders displayed a photograph of him with a FEO representative. “Formula E Operations Limited representative requested me to give a nod to conduct the race by releasing the remaining amount of the total `600 crore pledged. It was after this request that I found that the money was sent directly from an HMDA account to Britain in Pounds,” he said, adding that he would give chronological details of the Formula-E race case.
“There was a talk on Formula-E for about a year now, why are BRS legislators demanding a discussion now? It’s just because they don’t want a discussion on Dharani to take place in the Assembly. Also, I understand why Harish Rao wants a discussion on the issue. If Harish fails to do so, he would be whipped by KCR for not shielding KTR,” the chief minister said.