Hyderabad, March 9
In a major embarrassment to the ruling Congress, the Anti-Corruption Bureau today filed a case against former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah and 13 other officials in a dispute involving de-notification of a prime piece of land in the city.

Following a directive from the state high court, the ACB registered the case under various sections of IPC and Anti-Corruption Act. At the heart of the controversy was the decision of the Rosaiah government to de-notify a nine-acre plot in the prime locality of Ameerpet, worth Rs 200 crore, to “favour” businessman Dr GN Naidu and a few others.

It was alleged that the prime land was de-notified from the purview of land acquisition proceedings with an intention to benefit private individuals. Based on a petition filed by city-based advocate Sriranga Rao, the high court had recently directed the ACB to register a case and file a chargesheet after thorough investigation.

Accordingly, the ACB registered the case under IPC sections 404, 409, 420 and 120-B and sections 11, 12 and 13 of the Anti-Corruption Act. The land in question was acquired by the government long ago from certain private owners for constructing commercial complexes and other urban development projects in public interest.

Subsequently, it was bought by Dr GN Naidu and a few others from land owners in 1997, much after the land acquisition notification was issued. In July 2010, following a representation from Naidu, the state government withdrew the land acquisition notification and handed over the land to private parties in an “unlawful manner”, the petitioner alleged.

Under the Land Acquisition Act, the state has no power to return the land once acquired under the Act and a purchaser, who bought this land after the land was acquired, has no right to reclaim it, the petitioner argued. Even the Hyderabad Metro Development Authority (HMDA) was also opposed to returning the land to private owners as it would send wrong signals to scores of land-losers and may in fact come in the way of implementing infrastructure projects, it was argued.

However, the Chief Minister and other officials had overruled the objections and handed over the land to Naidu and others, the petitioner contended and urged the court to order an ACB probe into the matter.