Agri Gold chairman told to attend court

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed Agri Gold Group chairman A. Venkata Rama Rao to appear before the court on Monday.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt was hearing a PIL by the Telangana Agri Gold Customers and Agents Welfare Associa-tion, represented by its president A. Ramesh Babu, seeking to direct the auth-orities and the company to return Rs 7,000 crore deposited by about 32 lakh people and also seeking a probe either by the CBI or the Enforcement Directorate into the fraud.

Senior counsel D. Prakash Reddy, appearing for Agri Gold, informed the court about the three properties identified for auction initially, including 177 acres at Kesara village near Vijayawada, 170 acres near Bengaluru in Karnataka and another property in Visakhapatnam.

He said C1 India Pvt. Ltd. had come forward to conduct e-auctions and it would take more than a month to complete the process.When counsel refe-rred to the 177-acre property in Vijayawada, the bench expressed doubts about auctioning the land if it comes under the jurisdiction of the AP Capital Reg-ion Development Authority.

The bench said as the AP government had been acquiring land for the new capital, if the property falls under the CRDA limits, there could be legal complications.

The bench asked the AP government counsel to ascertain from the authorities whether the land falls under the CRDA limits and has any encumbrance and inform the court on Monday. The bench also told the petitioner company to show alternative properties for auction.

The bench asked the senior counsel why the company chairman was not appearing before the court, when the court wants an early solution to the issue.

The matter was posted to Monday for further hearing.

Justice R. Kantha Rao of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday issued notices to the AP government and Dr L.V. Subrahmanyam, IAS, special chief secretary to the AP government and other respondents in a petition by Dr G. Padmashree Professor in general surgery and head of department of surgery of Guntur Medical College.

The petitioner who had moved a plea challenging injustice caused to her in her transfer despite of the court orders, urged the court to direct the Andhra Pradesh government not to allow Dr Subrahmanyam to continue in the post of special chief secretary for medical and health department as he is facing charges in illegal investments case of YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

P.V. Krishnaiah, counsel appearing for the petitioner contended that it would not be proper to continue the official facing charges in focal posts.

He said that in the year 2014, the court has ordered the authorities to give posting to his client in any of the places of three places chosen by her other than Guntur within three weeks, but the authorities posted another person as professor in general surgery, in Siddhartha Medical College despite of her option for the said post.

The judge issued notices and posted the case after three weeks.