ED seizes 300 sale deeds, ‘benami’ land passbooks after raids against ex-YSRCP MP, others

PTI, Oct 21, 2024, 7:04 PM IST

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate Monday said it has seized more than 300 sale deeds of properties “acquired” by former YSRCP MP M V V Satyanarayana and some others, apart from ‘benami’ land passbooks, following raids against them in an Andhra Pradesh government land grab case.

The federal agency conducted searches against the former legislator and an auditor, Gannamaneni Venkateswara Rao, on October 19 at five locations in Visakhapatnam.

Satyanarayana was a YSRCP MP from 2019 to 2024. He unsuccessfully contested the Andhra Pradesh assembly polls earlier this year from the Visakhapatnam East seat.

The case pertains to a 12.51-acre land (with a market value of more than Rs 200 crore) that was allotted by the state government to the promoters of a company for creating housing projects for old-age people and orphans.

The ED said in a statement that the Andhra Pradesh Police FIR file at the Arilova police station in Visakhapatnam charged Satyanarayana, Rao and a third person, Gadde Brahmaji, for “forging” signatures, “fabricating” sale documents and using “coercion” to “grab” the land.

The land located in Yendana village of Visakhapatnam was allotted by the state government in 2008 to a company named Hayagreeva Farms and Developers for the construction of cottages for the elderly and orphans.

The land, according to the ED, was registered in the name of the company in 2010 on payment of Rs 5.63 crore.

“However, as per records of Andhra Pradesh Registration and Stamps Department, the market value of the said property as on the date of conveyance deed was around Rs 30.25 crore,” it said.

“After the accused fraudulently acquired the ownership of the said land, it was divided into small plots and alienated from 2021 onwards via means of registered agreements of sale and sale deeds to various persons thereby generating proceeds of crime of more than Rs 150 crore,” the agency added.

Searches at the residences and office premises of the accused persons resulted in the seizure of digital devices and incriminating documents in the form of benami land mutation passbooks; more than 300 sale deeds of immovable properties acquired in the names of Rao, Satyanarayana and their family members, and cash transactions of more than Rs 50 crore in the acquisition of immovable properties, the ED claimed.

The complainant in the case said in the June 22 police FIR that once the land was allotted to him, he engaged Rao, who in turn, introduced him to Satyanarayana and Brahmaji for developing the government-mandated project on it.

A MoU was signed among them in 2020 but the complainant alleged that his and his wife’s signatures were “fabricated” by the accused and they had made them sign blank papers leading to “misappropriation” of the documents.

He told police this was a “criminal conspiracy” to “grab” his land and the accused had “threatened” them with dire consequences.