Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Friday, allowed the plea of Prestige Estate Properties Ltd, challenging the action of the Bengaluru urban district administration to recover 3.23 acres of its land in the technology hub of Whitefield.
The State administration in May 2015 had recovered the land, where Prestige was building the White Meadows Project.
The land was allotted to Joy Ice Creams for construction of a software technology park by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB). Joy Ice Creams sold the property to Prestige allegedly in contravention of rules.
The administration took over the property, which it claimed was public land, which the KIADB had illegally allotted to Joy Ice Cream.
According to the government, Joy's MoU with another company, signed much before the plot was allotted, shows the ice cream manufacturer got the land for itself with the sole intention of selling it. It wilfully
mislead the government and sold the plot to Prestige within 40 days of getting an absolute sale deed done in its favour, the government said.
The Prestige had challenged the action of the State administration on the ground that proper procedure had been followed in the transfer of the land.
Devas plea dismissed
The High Court on Friday dismissed the petition filed by Devas Multimedia Private Ltd, Bengaluru, challenging the action of Enforcement Directorate (ED) attaching its assets worth over Rs 79 crore in connection with a money laundering probe in the Antrix-Devas deal.
In February, the assets were attached on the basis of a provisional order issued by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED had taken over the case based on a CBI FIR which alleged that Devas had illegally entered into an agreement with ISRO and its commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd by fraudulently representing certain facts.
It further alleged that after entering into the agreement, Devas collected investments from abroad through criminal conspiracy.
Antrix had signed a deal with Devas in 2005 to provide it with crucial S-Band wavelength, which is primarily kept for strategic interests of the country.
