No extortion in Ramammakunta case: Police

Hyderabad: The Cyberabad police on Wednesday submitted before the Hyderabad High Court that no person or persons is/are extorting money in the name of mafia from the builders carrying out constructions at the Ramammakunta lake for the AP Tourism Development Corporation and National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar was closing a PIL by the human rights and consumer protection cell, a trust represented by its chairman Thakur Rajkumar Singh, seeking CID probe into alleged illegal alienation of government land in favour of the APTDC and the NITHM for construction of a star hotel and other infrastructure facilities.

Earlier, the bench had sought a report from the district judge on Ramammakunta row. The district judge in his report suspected the alleged role of the land mafia behind the petition, to extort money from contractors. Based on the report, the bench directed the Cyberabad police to find out the facts.

Madhapur deputy police commissioner Kanthi Rana Tata in his report clarified that the director of NITHM had only made an informal mention of the word “mafia” during the enquiry by the district judge. In fact the director was not aware of any person indulging in extortion of money from the builders in the area in the name of mafia, the report said.

The DCP further said that the other witnesses of the area also stated that they have not come across any person extorting money from them and there was nothing to suggest that either the petitioner of PIL or any other person related have filed this PIL for personal gain.

The High Court bench said that  there was no need to issue any further orders in the case.