HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Telangana High Court, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao, has dismissed two public interest litigations (PILs) seeking a CBI investigation into land allotments made to M/s. IMG Bharata Academies Private Limited.
The petitioners, A B K Prasad and another person, sought a directive to the central government to issue a notification under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, extending the CBI’s jurisdiction to probe the land allotments made through Government Order (GO) 310, issued by the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh on December 13, 2006.
The petitioners alleged that the land transactions between the Andhra Pradesh government and IMG Bharata were conducted at unreasonably low prices and in a non-transparent manner. They called for an investigation into the Memorandum of Understanding and related sale agreements, seeking to involve the Central Vigilance Commission for supervision.
The court noted that one of the petitioners, Vijay Sai Reddy, is associated with YS Vijaya, the widow of the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy. Sai Reddy, a member of parliament from the YSR Congress Party, was also in prison at the time the petition was filed in connection with a separate investigation involving YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s group of companies.
Given Reddy’s political background and association with the YSRCP, the court observed that the PIL might be influenced by political rivalry, particularly against the newly impleaded respondent.