Hyderabad, September 13: Lagadapati Rajagopal, Congress Lok Sabha member from Vijayawada, was allotted 108 acres of prime land worth Rs 2,000 cr, in Hyderabad’s IT hub Manikonda, by the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, when the latter was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Rajagopal’s younger brother Lagadapati Sridhar invested Rs 52 cr in two of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s firms: Rs 31 cr in Jagathi Publications and Rs 21 cr in Sandur Power. Yet the CBI, which registered cases against over 70 individuals and companies for investing in Jagan Reddy’s companies in lieu of favours obtained from YSR, Jagan Reddy’s father, refuses to see the link between the two deals and has spared Rajagopal from the case. The land given to Rajagopal’s Lanco Hills originally belonged to the Andhra Pradesh Wakf Board, but YSR overruled all objections to ensure that the MP could build a huge township there. Both brothers are directors in the family-owned Rs 20,000 cr Lanco Industries Group.
Lanco Hills
When asked why the CBI excluded the names of Rajagopal and Sridhar from the FIR filed by the agency on 18 August, CBI joint director V.V. Lakshminarayana told this newspaper, “There is no quid pro quo favour to Sridhar from YSR.” Thus he dismissed the link between the MP and his younger brother.
However, as the CBI came under intense criticism for ignoring Sridhar, the agency started searching the offices of Sridhar’s Jubilee Media Communication Private Limited in Jubilee Hills on Hyderabad on Thursday and Friday. When asked about the sudden raids against Sridhar, a CBI spokesman told this newspaper, “We cannot rule out any possibilities in the case and the raids are being conducted on the basis of the emerging evidence as investigation progresses.” The CBI spokesman refused to answer the charge that Sridhar was spared from the FIR because he was related to the Congress MP.
This has to be seen in the context of other cases like that of Nimmagadda Prasad and S. Diwakar Reddy, who were named in the FIR because their kin got benefits from the YSR regime.
Lagadapati Rajagopal (Lerft) & Lagadapati Sridhar
The CBI went to the extent of summoning each of the 70 persons who were allotted luxury villas in the Emaar-MGF Township in Hyderabad city to know whether they received this undervalued prime property in return for any help they extended to the promoters. “Going by the same logic, why wasn’t the Congress MP questioned by the CBI?” one of the villa allottees asked.
A source in the Wakf Board said, “As soon as YSR became Chief Minister, the stage was set to occupy prime Wakf land in Manikonda. The CM was very interested in Lanco’s case.”
It was settled in 1959 that a land measuring 1,654 acres at Manikonda in Rajendranagar mandal of Ranga Reddy district, adjoining Hyderabad city, belonged to the Wakf Board. However, as the value of the land went up, several litigations started on the ownership of the land. The Wakf Board has been fighting these cases in courts and in the Wakf Tribunal.
In a drastic move, YSR, who became CM on 16 May 2004, allotted 108 acres from the AP Wakf Board land to Rajagopal’s Lanco Hills. As the Wakf Board objected to the move, he superseded them and appointed a state cadre officer, Shaik Madar, as a special officer cum CEO of the Wakf Board.
Madar, disregarding the legal opinion given by the Wakf Board’s standing counsel, sent a letter to the government to forego the land for the sake of the state’s industrial development. The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) took possession of the land on 28 October 2004 and allotted it to Lanco Technology Park Private Limited on 17 August 2005.
For this land, which was valued at a market price of Rs 20 cr an acre, Lanco Hills paid just Rs 4.27 cr an acre. Of this, the original land value is fixed at Rs 60 lakh per acre, while the remaining Rs 3.67 cr per acre is mentioned as development charges. “Nowhere have we seen land value to be less than development charge,” a Wakf Board official said on the condition of anonymity.
“Though it is named Technology Park, Lanco Hills has built residential and commercial apartments, villas and complexes over there. This is real estate business. It is an open case of YSR handing on a platter a land worth Rs 20,000 cr to his friend,” former AP Wakf Borad chairman Mohammad Salem told this newspaper.
The AP Wakf Board is fighting a case with Lanco Hills on this matter. Curiously, the AP government is unable to decide with whom it should side with. When YSR was alive, three years ago, the revenue department suspended a Wakf Board surveyor for saying the land belonged to the Board.
The spokesman of Lanco Hills refused to comment on the matter saying that the case was before court.
The newly appointed chairman of Wakf Board, Miya Afzul Biyani told The Sunday Guardian that he would fight for every inch of land that belonged to the Wakf Board. But Lanco Hills is prepared to pay a higher compensation to the Board, if necessary, and not return the land.
It has to be seen whether the CBI will take note of this deal as a case of favours being given for money invested in YSR’s son company and registers a case against the MP and his younger brother.
Thanks to S RAMA KRISHNA
