Hyderabad, August 16: The Abids police on August 12 booked cases against two former senior officials Mohammed Abdul Quddus (Ex-Special Officer) and Shaik Madhar Sahib (Former CEO) of the Andhra Pradesh State Wakf Board, its ex-standing counsel Subhani and MOhammed Azhar Uddin of Jamaat-e-Islami Social Service Society for illegally selling away 428 acre land in Maheshwaram village on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
The case that has stirred up furious debate in the community would come up for hearing in the Nampally Criminal court on Monday. Meanwhile, it is learnt the board is also planning to challenge and seek the cancellation of the sale of the land in Wakf Tribunal soon. The police have registered a case under 420 IPC (Cheating) 406 (Criminal Breach of Trust) and 120(B) Criminal Conspiracy.
The case is a classic example of how the board has slept on the wakf properties without looking into their protection for years and waking up to save them when they have already changed one or more hands. If the Maheshwaram property had been secured in time, protected properly and sold during the boom time it would have fetched a minimum Rs 200 crore. Since it was a distress sale by JISSS, involving a host of unfavourable factors, the society could get a paltry Rs 12 crore.
According to SWB records, the land that was endowed by Syed Jamaluddin on January 1, 1971 to JISSS to maintain and expand the Muslim Maternity Hospital was notified as wakf property only in 2005, though it had issued a certificate claiming it to be the wakf property in 1977. In 2005, the legislative assembly house committee censured the board for not taking note of the land, since parts of which were being sold away. But the board did not take any action. It issued a show cause notice to the JISSS only in February 2007. The JISSS in its reply 15 months later told the board to back off since the land belonged to the society. It also asked the board to withdraw the notice. The board sought opinion from its law officer Qadir Mohiuddin, who said since the property is wakf land it cannot be sold by anybody.
However, the board’s standing counsel S A Subhani took a different stand. He said that the land was directly endowed to JISSS by a private individual therefore the board does not come into the picture. On finding these contradictory opinions, the Special Officer of the board Sheikh Madar Sahib decided to use his powers recklessly and withdrew the show cause notice. He also reportedly wrote to the sub-registrar of Maheshwaram that since the wakf board is not a party he could take whatever action he deemed fit in regard to the registration of land.
According to experts, Sheik Madar Sahib or any other official of the board could not have acted on his own unless he was given specific direction by superiors. At that point of time the board was being run by the Minority Welfare Ministry appointed Special Official and the Chief Executive Officer.
Sources close to JISSS pointed out that the property was a direct gift by Jamaluddin to JISSS for a specific purpose. The Wakf Board could not have been brought into the picture had there not been a need to save the property from the Agricultural Land Ceiling Act. Even at the time when the land was gifted, a large portion of it was under cultivation by over 250 families of the nearby area. To wriggle out of the situation and save whatever was possible, the society had to enter into an understanding with the cultivators, realtors and lawyers.
The land that actually came to JISS was only about 200 acre and that was sold for a paltry Rs 12 crore. The society keeping in view the will of the endower bought properties in the city with that money. It was impossible to secure the entire land because it was in possession and use of some families for long years.
The land could not have been sold had the possessors not agreed to cooperate, though for a substantial price. All this procedure brought down the price of the land to an unreasonably low level. However, the entire set of dealings is transparent and documented. The board is raking up the issue unnecessarily only because at some point of time it had helped to save the property, sources at the society said.
The case, whatever its merits, when decided has the potential to change the entire functioning of the board in the future.
–Agencies