HYDERABAD: A Justice K Sujana of the Telangana High Court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to the Bachupally Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) in a case related to construction of illegal structures near the Errakunta pond in Pragathi Nagar. The MRO, who was appointed in August 2023, was implicated in Crime No. 41 of 2024 registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Cyberabad based on a complaint filed by the HYDRAA Commissioner, alleging that several government officials had facilitated illegal constructions within the buffer zone of the Errakunta pond, located in Survey No 134 under the jurisdiction of Nizampet Municipality.
The petitioner, identified as Accused No 2 in the case, is alleged to have been involved in granting approvals for these constructions. However, he argued that he was being falsely implicated. His defence stated that he took charge as the Bachupally MRO in August 2023, and by that time, all necessary building permissions have already been granted. Furthermore, in January 2024, he had initiated steps to address the illegal constructions within the FTL of the said pond.
The prosecution maintained that the permissions granted for the constructions were illegal, based on the findings of the executive engineer, Irrigation and Command Area Development Department, and the assistant director of survey and land records, who confirmed that the land in question was government property. The petitioner, in his plea, further contended that the first building permission was issued in favour of a private individual, E Venkatesh, in June 2020, long before his tenure as MRO began. The approval was granted by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority for the construction of a multi-storey building in Survey Nos 48 and 49 of Bachupally Municipal Corporation.