Officials Face HC Ire Over Bhoodhan Land Purchase
Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy issued notices to IAS and IPS officers and their family members, who acquired the property, directing them to reply as to why directions of an inquiry by CBI or ED is not ordered.
Hyderabad:The Telangana High Court on Thursday expressed grave concern over senior government officials procuring valuable Bhoodhan lands at Nagaram village of Maheshwaram mandal, despite those lands were in the prohibited list and mentioned as the ‘Gairan lands’ in the revenue records.
Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy issued notices to IAS and IPS officers and their family members, who acquired the property, directing them to reply as to why directions of an inquiry by CBI or ED is not ordered.
The judge also issued notices to the CBI, ED, Union home ministry and DoPT to respond to a petition seeking action against the authorities for gross violations and conducting the CBI and ED inquiry.
Considering the serious allegations made against the persons in high positions, and a potential misuse of their power for vested interests, the judge directed the Ranga Reddy District Collector, District Registrar to include the lands in Sy.Nos.181, 182, 194, and 195 of Nagaram, Maheshwaram mandal, Ranga Reddy district in the list of prohibited properties.
The court further directed not to change, alter, or alienate these lands in any manner until further orders. Because of the serious allegations made against the senior public officials, the court directed that the petitioner shall not be permitted to withdraw the writ petition without its permission. He directed the High Court Registry to make an endorsement on the writ petition to the effect that it will not be permitted to be withdrawn.
Justice Bhaskar Reddy was dealing with a petition filed by by Birla Mahesh, who levied serious allegations of widespread fraud, including the use of forged documents, tampering of revenue records, and illegal land transfers allegedly facilitated by senior IAS and IPS officers from both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, in collusion with revenue and registration officials.
The petitioner argued that the lands in Survey No.s 181, 182, 194, and 195 of Nagaram village form a part of the Bhoodan lands that stand vested with the Bhoodan Board. Despite knowing the nature of land, the respondents, in contravention of the Bhoodan Act, they purchased large plots of land in their names and the names of their family members. It was further submitted that complaints were lodged with the Central Vigilance Commission and the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Telangana, but no action has been initiated.
L. Ravichander, senior counsel appearing for the petitioner, argued that this manipulation enabled the unauthorised transfer of land to various private individuals despite the land being officially categorised as prohibited under Section 22-A of the Registration Act, owing to its classification as government and Bhoodan land.
It was contended that multiple sale transactions were executed and registered with the alleged involvement of corrupt officials and high-profile buyers, including bureaucrats. During the arguments, Ravichander brought to the notice of the court how land records were manipulated, false inheritance claims were manufactured, and Pattadar Passbooks were unlawfully issued.
The counsel also argued that the higher authorities, who are in key positions like principal secretary and others, had misused the Dharani digital portal and the improperly issued 13-B certificates, which are meant to regularise unregistered sale deeds, commonly referred to as Saida Bainama.
“Rather than receiving support from authorities, the petitioner claims to have been subjected to a campaign of harassment. He received more than 10 legal notices, including defamation demands of up to `1 crore and threats of legal action unless public apologies were issued within 24 hours,” the senior counsel brought to the notice of the court. The counsel also requested the court to give protection to the petitioner under the Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2014, who is facing victimisation for exposing the illegalities by the Higher officials.
He pointed out that certain survey numbers having Bhoodan lands were not included, but warrant the courts' protection. The judge considered the arguments and halted the purchase transaction over the disputed land and issued notices to all 76 official and unofficial respondents. All of them have to file a counter on or before June 12, 2025..
VIPs’ purchased Bhudan land purchase
Name Relation to Officer Extent of Land
Battula Hemalatha C/o Battula Shivadhar Reddy, IPS 20 guntas
Priyanka Ratan C/o Late Rajiv Ratan, IPS 16 guntas
Ravi Gupta IPS Self 16 guntas
Mudireddy Nitesh Reddy S/o Mahender Reddy, IPS 20 guntas
Thatiparthi Pavani Rao C/o T Prabhakar Rao, IPS 16 guntas
Rekha Sharraf C/o Umesh Sharraf, IPS 16 guntas
Rajarshi Shah Self, IAS 8 guntas
Swati Lakra Self, IPS 16 guntas
Mitte Sahithi Suhana C/o Mitte Srinibasu 8 guntas
Nandini Mann C/o Vikram Singh Mann, IPS 8 guntas
Dr. Gyan Mudra C/o Somesh Kumar, IAS 20 guntas
B.K. Rahul Hegde Self, 8 guntas
Savyasachi Pratap Singh S/o Govind Singh, 8 guntas
G. Om Anirudh S/o Sudheer Babu Gotte, not specified
Indu Rao Kaveti C/o Laxminarayan Rao Kaveti 16 guntas
Nyalakonda Sindhu Reddy C/o Nyalakonda Prakash Reddy 20 guntas
Aishwarya Raj C/o Vikas Raj, 20 guntas
Vennavelli Radhika C/o V.B. Kamalasan Reddy, 16 guntas
Vasundhara Sinha C/O Anjani Kumar, 20 guntas
Reeta Sultania C/O Sandeep Kumar Sultania, 20 guntas
Muthyala Vineela C/O Stephen Raveendra, 20 guntas
Ajit Kumar Mohanty S.OKhestrabasi Mohanty 20 guntas
Navin Mittal Self, 20 guntas
Soumya Mishra Self, 16 guntas
Rahul Busi Reddy S/o B.Janardhan Reddy, IAS 16 guntas
Tarun Joshi Self, IPS 16 guntas
Perla Varun S/o Perla Vishwa Prasad, 16 guntas
Thota Srinivasa Rao S/o Thota Sai Babu, IPS not specified
Konduru Sreenath Raju S/o Konduru Satyanarayana 20 guntas
Mahesh Bhagwat Self, 16 guntas
Renu Goyal C/o Jitender Kumar Goyal, 20 guntas
Ajay Jain Self 20 guntas
Amita Kumar Anil Kumar 20 guntas
