Hyderabad: Former office-bearers of the Hyderabad Cricket Association have moved the Hyderabad High Court seeking quashing of proceedings issued by the Anti Corruption Bureau of Telangana for alleged misuse of HCA funds.
Former president of HCA Arshad Ayub and three former office-bearers, including D.S. Chalapathi, K. John Manoj and R. Devraj, moved the quash petition contending that they do not come under the purview of Prevention of Corruption Act since they are not public servants.
They also contended that the allegations made in the chargesheet do not point to any commission of offence under the PC Act.
The ACB filed the chargesheet against the former office-bearers after registering a case following the direction of a lower court based on a complaint by Shalimar Cricket Eleven.
According to special public prosecutor of the ACB V. Ravi Kiran Rao, the erstwhile Sports Academy of AP has sanctioned funds to the HCA earlier. Mr Rao said that whenever an institution uses even a fraction of such funds, the office-bearers of such institution or association come under the definition of a public servant.
When the matter came up for hearing before Justice M. Seetharama Murti on Wednesday, counsel for the petitioners urged the court to grant some time to argue their case by a senior counsel.
The judge posted the matter to next Wednesday.
SCR allowed to acquire TTD land
The Hyderabad High Court has permitted the South Central Railways to acquire land belonging to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam for construction of a new platform in the Tirupati railway station.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice T Rajani was allowing a petition by the South Central Railways urging the court to grant permission to acquire the land belonging to the TTD.
On an earlier occasion, another division bench of the same court had declared that the permission shall be obtained from the High Court if any land belonging to temples is needed for public purpose.
The SCR informed the court that alternative land cannot be acquired as the new platform has to be constructed adjacent to the present station.
While permitting the acquisition, the bench made it clear that that the alienation would however be subject to the Railways paying compensation to the TTD in accordance with the relevant Land Acquisition Act and depositing the amount.
