Top Andhra IAS officer asks Hyd HC to set aside ACB court order in Raheja Mindspace case

Andhra Pradesh Special Chief Secretary LV Subrahmanyam urged the Hyderabad High Court on Monday, to set aside an order passed by the ACB court, which made him an accused in Raheja Mind Space case.

Last year, the ACB court had allowed a protest petition and issued summons to all six accused including three IAS officers and one IPS officer.

The accused IAS officers are BP Acharya, LV Subrahmanyam, K Ratnaprabha while the IPS officer is M Gopikrishna. The project's MD Neil Raheja and the project's Hyderabad head B Rabindranath were also named in the case.

The case pertains to allegations that the Mind Space Project was allotted to Raheja Corporation, without calling for tenders or conducting an auction.

Besides resulting in a huge financial loss to the APIIC, the move is also alleged to have given undue benefit to Rahejas.

Another allegation is that the land was seriously undervalued, and sold at Rs 1 crore per acre instead of Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2 crore per acre.

After initially claiming that the Rahejas had reduced the APIIC's stake of 11% in the joint venture to 0.55%, the court closed the case after an ACB report said that the Rahejas had restored the 11 per cent stake to the government.

According to reports, Subrahmanyam was the managing director of Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) during the time, and recommended transfer of land available at Nanakramguda to the Rahejas as no land was available at Madhapur.

However, he was transferred within a week after that move, and was not involved in what followed, his lawyers told the HC.

The case was postponed for further hearing.