Andhra court to hear APIIC-Emaar case tomorrow

The Andhra Pradesh High Court today said there was a case for CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the transfer of land from Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) to Emaar Group, and posted the matter till tomorrow.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Nisar Ahmad Kakru and Justice Vilas Afzalpurkar made this observation while hearing a petition filed by State Textiles Minister P Shankar Rao.

The bench said it had gone though the records and was prima facie satisfied that a case be made for ordering a preliminary inquiry by the investigative agency CBI into the allegations.

Rao, who had filed the petition before becoming a Minister, alleged that large-scale irregularities took place in the transfer of land from APIIC, a State-run agency, to real estate firm Emaar-MGF, a subsidiary of Dubai-based Emaar Group.

In October last year, Rao wrote a letter to the High Court Chief Justice levelling allegations of large-scale irregularities in the APIIC-Emaar MGF deal.

The letter was treated as a petition by the HC, which subsequently issued notices to all the parties concerned.

The YS Rajasekhara Reddy-led Congress government had allotted about 200 acres of land to Emaar-MGF to develop a golf course, residential apartments and villas in Hyderabad.

Several land deals concluded during the YSR Reddy's tenure as the Chief Minister have come under the lens for alleged irregularities.