UoH row: Govt hits out at KTR

Hyderabad:Leading financial institution ICICI Bank and the state government on Friday debunked BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao’s claims over what minister D. Sridhar Babu described as “nonsensical, non-factual and wild” allegations on the government making use of Kancha Gachibowli land to raise funds.

Reacting to allegations levelled by Rama Rao that the bank had given a `10,000 crore mortgage loan to the TGIIC for the 400-acre site, ICICI Bank, in a statement, said: “We would like to clarify that we have not provided any mortgage loan to Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC, which has been renamed as TGIIC) and TSIIC has not mortgaged any land with us in relation to this bond issuance. We acted only as an account bank to TSIIC for receipt of bond issuance money and interest servicing.”

Earlier in the day, Rama Rao, addressing a press meet, alleged that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy masterminded a `10,000 crore financial fraud on the Kancha Gachibowli land, and the deal involved ICICI Bank. He warned that the bank may face downfall and a “collapse if it continues with such practices.”

Rama Rao alleged that while the Chief Minister was the “architect, executor, and key player” behind the scandal, a “BJP MP facilitated the perpetrating of the scandal.” He even threatened that the party would write to the RBI, the Serious Fraud Investigation wing of the ministry of corporate sffairs, Sebi, Central Vigilance Commission, and the CBI asking seeking an investigation. “If the Centre does not act, then it will confirm a BJP-Congress nexus, and we will approach the courts. We’ll raise this in Parliament through our allies,” he said.

The facts, however, emerged differently following the clarifications from both ICICI Bank and the state government.

After winning the legal battle over 400 acres given to IMG Bharata way back in 2003, the Revanth Reddy government had reached out to the financial markets for raising funds and transferred the land to TGIIC to initiate the process.

“We followed the routine and well established norms of raising capital by any state government in lieu of its property,” said Sridhar Babu. The TGIIC issued a rated, listed, senior, secured, taxable, redeemable non-convertible debentures on a private placement basis, in response to which, several investment and mutual funds had expressed confidence and invested in the bonds issued by the corporation. “ICICI Bank is just a partner bank for the transaction,” the minister added.

The TGIIC appointed iVAS, a subsidiary of CBRE, an Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, (IBBI-certified) valuation consultant, in October 2024, which certified the value of the land as `20,563 crore. The brokerage firm was selected based on a competitive bidding process and was paid as per standard industry norms, the minister pointed out.

The government raised `10,000 crore as per RBI guidelines; in fact, the state government issued a direct debit mandate in favour of the RBI for the bonds issue of `9,995.28 crore, which the central bank had duly confirmed, he said.

Sridhar Babu alleged that after the BRS’ “AI-fabricated audio, pictures and videos were exposed”, it took a new line of attack primarily to stall city’s growth and employment creation. “Just because people defeated you in elections, don’t consider people your enemy, he said.

Rama Rao had alleged that the bank illegally extended loan accepting mortgage of forest land belonging to University of Hyderabad without even inspecting the site and verifying the genuineness of the title claimed by the TGIIC. Refuting this, Sridhar Babu said; “While there is no question of any bank visiting the field because no loan was taken, on behalf of the investors, a debenture trustee had duly conducted an independent valuation of the land and verified that the land is suitable as collateral for the said levels of valuation.”