AgriGold scam: HC seeks AP CID, firm’s response

Hyderabad: The Telangana high court on Wednesday sought the response of Andhra Pradesh CID and AgriGold management on whether there is any truth to the allegations that one of the directors of the scam hit company, Avva Hemasundara Vara Prasad (Raja), and several others had diverted Rs 700 crore of the company’s funds to their personal accounts and that they were purchasing various properties through benami mode.

The division bench, comprising Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice P Keshava Rao, issued the directive while hearing a PIL filed by Telangana Agrigold Customers and Depositors Association seeking a CBI probe into the Agrigold scam. The counsel for the petitioner submitted an affidavit to the court, bringing to its notice the media reports from AP that spoke about the diversion of funds. It was pointed out that such illegally bought properties were not attached by the AP CID.

The bench was told that the response to the auction of the high value property-Haailand- in Vijayawada was lukewarm. This was happening despite scaling down the price of the asset to Rs 500 crore. The bench said that alternatives to selling such high value properties have to be explored and that this would be done in June, when the court reopens after vacation.

The court permitted Andhra Bank to take an amount of Rs 4.83 crore of the total Rs 8.88 crore earned from the sale of assets belonging to M/s Ritwik Energy Systems Ltd, a subsidiary company of Agrigold group. It directed the bank to place the remaining amount in a cumulative interest bearing account for final disbursal.

The court also permitted Corporation Bank to proceed with auctioning of Agrigold properties mortgaged with it but with a rider that it should not confirm the sales without the court’s permission.