The Opposition BRS leader said that the scam was one of the major financial frauds that was conceived and perpetrated on the people of Telangana.
Published Apr 11, 2025 | 1:47 PM ⚊ Updated Apr 11, 2025 | 1:47 PM
KT Rama Rao requested the RBI, Serious Fraud Investigation Department under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, SEBI, Central Vigilance Commission, and Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the fraud.
Synopsis: The Telangana government may have used ₹5,000 crore of the amount received as loan against the land to fund the Rythu Bandhu scheme but the remaining ₹5,000 crore went to important people in the government who paid it to contractors after accepting hefty cuts, the BRS leader alleged.
Firing another salvo at the A Revanth Reddy-led Congress government in Telangana, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Friday, 11 April, alleged that a ₹10,000 crore scam was behind the hasty clearance of the green cover of the over 400-acre Kancha Gachibowli urban forest.
The Opposition BRS leader said that the scam was one of the major financial frauds that was conceived and perpetrated on the people of Telangana by the chief minister and his office to benefit their hangers-on in return for hefty payoffs.
Rama Rao — widely known as KTR — requested the RBI, Serious Fraud Investigation Department under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, SEBI, Central Vigilance Commission, and Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the fraud.
“We will lodge a complaint with these institutions. If the BJP-led government remains silent, then the BRS would go to the highest forum—the people’s court—and explain to them how their money was being plundered,” he said.
The BRS working president alleged that the Revanth Reddy government has plans to mortgage Hyderabad Urban Development Authority’s lands worth ₹60,000 similarly.
The BRS leader, explaining the alleged scam at a news conference in Hyderabad, traced it from the day the land was transferred to the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGSIIC) by a government GO.
“But the land was never transferred to the TGSIIC, the title deed was not made in its name, nor was any mutation done in favour of the corporation,” he said.
The TGSIIC, KTR claimed, had mortgaged the land, which did not belong to it, with the ICICI Bank for ₹10,000 crore, which was released as bonds.
The Telangana government may have used ₹5,000 crore of the amount thus raised to fund the Rythu Bandhu scheme but the remaining ₹5,000 crore went to important people in the government who paid it to contractors after accepting hefty cuts.
To facilitate mortgaging the land to the ICICI Bank, KTR said, the state government took the help of a BJP MP, whose name he did not disclose. He said he would reveal the name after he gets the BJP leader’s share of the proceeds.
The MP, KTR said, roped in Trust Investment Advisors which, in turn, used the services of another company—Beacon Trusteeship, a Mumbai-based, SEBI-registered debenture trustee.
The Trust Investment Advisors received a payment of ₹169 crore for helping the government raise the loan.
The BRS working president said as soon as the Supreme Court gave a verdict that the 400 acres at Kancha Gachibowli lands belonged to the state government, the latter transferred it to TGSIIC.
The corporation, though aware that the land had not been registered in its favour, agreed to mortgage the land with the ICICI Bank to raise the loan. The bank, without verification, advanced the ₹10,000 crore loan.
The BRS leader said the Beacon Trusteeship and the government together inflated the value of the land to ₹16,640 crore and obtained a loan of ₹10,000 crore. But the same government had said the value of the land was about ₹75 crore per acre in June 2024 and then reduced it to ₹52 crore.
“How could the land value slump by ₹23 crore in five years, and what had fundamentally changed,” he asked.
Later, the government said the market value of the land was ₹41.6 crore per acre. The government thus raised the value of the land to ₹30,000 crore for the entire 400 acres and then brought it down to ₹16,640 crore.
“Now the stage is set to sell the lands at throwaway prices,” he added.
KTR demanded the state government to come clean on the guidelines that it had followed in hiring the Trust Investment Advisors and Beacon Trusteeship and whether the bank had advanced the loan because of the BJP MP’s involvement.
“In the first place, it is a crime to sell forest land (he substantiated his claim referring to Supreme Court orders), and then TGSIIC selling it though it does not belong to it, then announcing that the land cost was about ₹30,000 crore, then bringing it down to ₹20,000 crore and later on to ₹16,640 crore. Revanth Reddy wants to distribute the land at a pittance to those who are close to him,” he alleged.
KTR further said that the BRS would review the scam after it came to power in the state, which he said was certain.
He said the credibility of the ICICI Bank was at stake for circumventing the rules for advancing the loan. If the facts came out, the bank would likely collapse, he said.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
