BJP MP Etala slaps a real estate broker, for threatening plot owners in Ekasila Nagar
Hyderabad: BJP MP Etala Rajendar slapped a realtor during a row between real estate agents and local plot-owners over a piece of land at Ekasilanagar, Pocharam IT Corridor police said. Police have booked the MP and six others.
Rajendar was leading the plot-owners and said he had lost his cool while dealing with the real estate agents. “The circumstances made me act.. in order to protect `dharma’… to stand with the common man, to protect their genuine rights,” Rajendar said later.
“Revenue and police officials repeatedly failed (to act), I gave the punishment” Rajendar told Deccan Chronicle after the incident. “I have never seen such lawlessness in my 25 years of political career.”
Rajendar said that 2,076 employees working in various government departments had purchased the 149 acres of layout in 1985, when the land cost was roughly `10,000 per acre. As the layout was far away from the city, and strewn with boulders, shrubs and bushes, the plot owners hesitated to move there in view of threat from robbers.
The land price has since risen substantially. Meanwhile, some local real estate agents allegedly created fake documents to show the layout land as agricultural land and tried to get control over it. The courts ruled in favour of the plot owners in 2006 and 2011, Rajendar said.
The BJP MP claimed that some agents under the protection of a political party began blocking the plot-owners when they tried to claim the land, and demanded lakhs of rupees to move out.
“They arranged camps with hired goons and deployed dogs and even threatened women who tried to visit their plots. Not even considering that there were women, they hurled abuses and used filthy language,” Rajendar said.
He said that the plot-owners had appealed to him for help. “As their MP, and to instil confidence among them, I visited Ekashilanagar to get first-hand information since the revenue and police officials had taken a partisan stand and never supported them,” Rajendar said.
“But, the real estate agents camping there provoked me. I do not consider it wrong to slap the agent,” Rajendar said and demanded that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy order an inquiry to identify the persons behind the alleged land-grab and their political background.
The plot owners released some photographs to present how the goons engaged by realtors had been encroaching on the land and threatening them.
In the melee between the plot-owners, Rajendar’s supporters and real estate agents, two persons named Upender and Shabbir suffered injuries and were taken to a private hospital and later moved to Gandhi Hospital.
Later, one Venkatesh, claiming to be the developer of the venture, held a press conference and criticised the action of Rajendar. Claiming that he was the rightful owner, he presented documents and court rulings in his favour.
Venkatesh accused real estate brokers in Ekashilanagar of attempting to portray them as frauds and of orchestrating a conspiracy to illegally occupy their land. Venkatesh stated that the government had granted mutation of 47 acres and 25 guntas of land in 2007, with Survey No.s 739, 740, 741, 742 and issued a land passbook.
Meanwhile, the victims filed a petition with Pocharam IT Corridor police.
Pocharam IT Corridor police said they had registered cases against six persons including Rajendar. Cases under wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation and causing insult were filed against the BJP MP, Yenugu Sudarshan Reddy, Shiva Reddy, Jubair Akram, Basawaraj Goud, and V. Srinivas.
