The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting searches at various locations in the city, reportedly in connection with the multi-crore Bhoodan Yagna Board land scam.
Teams of ED officials, accompanied by CRPF personnel, raided the houses of prominent land dealers linked to the scam in the early hours of the day.
The searches are underway in Yakutpura, Santoshnagar, and other areas in the older parts of the city.
The scam revolves around the fraudulent sale of 103 acres of land at Nagaram village in Maheshwaram mandal, Ranga Reddy district. Several IAS and IPS officers are among those who allegedly purchased the land.
The ED's probe follows allegations that Bhoodan lands — originally meant for distribution to the poor under the Bhoodan Yagna movement — were illegally sold through forged documents and shady transactions.
The case dates back to March 2023, when Dastagir Shareef, a resident of Mehdipatnam, filed a complaint, leading to an FIR against the Maheshwaram Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) and others.
The list of accused includes land dealers, real estate figures such as Kondapalli Sridhar Reddy of EIPL Constructions, and several government officials.
Last Thursday, the Telangana High Court issued notices to 76 respondents, including some IAS and IPS officers, in a writ petition seeking an inquiry into the alleged illegal grabbing of Bhoodan lands.
The judge observed that, prima facie, the lands under survey numbers 181, 182, 194, and 195 of Nagaram village appear to be vested with the Bhoodan Board, as per Section 14 of the Bhoodan Act.
Given the serious allegations against high-ranking individuals, the judge directed the Ranga Reddy district collector and the sub-registrars of Maheshwaram and L.B. Nagar to immediately include these lands in the list of prohibited properties.
Top officials who received notices include Navin Mittal IAS, D. Amoy Kumar IAS, S. Harish IAS, Ravi Gupta IPS, Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat IPS, T. Srinivas Rao IPS, Sowmya Mishra IPS, Swati Lakra IPS, and Tarun Joshi IPS.
The names of spouses of some senior officials also appear in the list of respondents.
The petitioner alleged that the respondents, by abusing their official positions and in collusion with revenue officials, managed to get their names mutated in the revenue records and obtained pattadar passbooks.
