An interesting legal battle has unfolded in Hafeezpet with the government locking horns with a financial institution over eight acres of prime land, which once belonged to the Paigah nobles, and is now up for auction.
The land near Madhapur, valued over Rs 240 crore, was pledged to various financial institutions by a realtor who is now bankrupt and has failed to repay Rs 119 crore.
As a result, SREI Equipment and Finance Limited, who had sanctioned the loan to M/s Aashi Realtors and Niharika Infrastructure Pvt Ltd in July 2018, is trying to auction the land and recover the defaulted amount.
But the government claims ownership of this land in survey no. 78 in Hafeezpet and revenue department has been battling in courts to take possession from private persons.
The registration and stamps department website even shows the land in survey no. 78 as prohibitory land, where registration is not allowed by private persons, putting a question mark on the original sale.
According to auction notification issued by the SREI, Sukesh Gupta, Reema Agarwal, Rajesh Agarwal and Agarwal Realty Developers Pvt Ltd were the guarantors. The financial institution now intends to hold the auction in the last week of September.
The government, however, is in no mood to give up and is moving ahead to stall the auction. The state’s stand is that all Jagir land, including Paigah, belong to the government following the abolition of Jagir land in 1949 and payment of compensation.
“The government has claims over the land in Hafeezpet and the revenue department will be approaching the government pleader to save the land by stalling the process,” Ranga Reddy district in-charge collector S Harish told.
Explaining the land position, Rajendranagar revenue divisional officer (RDO) K Chandrakala said, “The land in survey no. 78 along with other survey no. 77, 79 and 80, which is about 800 acres, is covered under civil suits (CS) 14 (Paigah Jagir land) and the government has interests there.
Final decree was not given in the mortgaged land in survey 78, which means no private person can claim the land and transaction is prohibited.”
But SREI’s authorised officer E Venu Gopal said they had acquired the rights to sell by clearing dues to India Bulls. “The land which was pledged with the banks and financial institution was not government land and disputed land. We have taken legal opinion and even registration was done earlier,” Gopal told TOI.
A few months ago, another land parcel being claimed by the government in Hafeezpet (survey no. 80) was pledged by film producer Burgupally Siva Ramakrishna who took about Rs 11 crore from a national bank and then defaulted. But the revenue department successfully stalled the process and the producer also came forward to repay the amount.
Source- et realty
