Telangana High Court awards jail terms for 3 senior officials in land case

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has punished three senior bureaucrats with various terms of simple imprisonment after they were convicted for contempt of court in relation to some land deals.

The court pulled up Siddipet collector P. Venkatrami Reddy, IAS officer Krishna Bhaskar who served as Siddipet collector for eight months and is now Rajanna Siricilla collector, and erstwhile revenue divisional officer of Siddipet Jayachandra Reddy, saying they were guilty of wilful disobedience of the court’s interim order.

Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao was dealing with a contempt petition filed by Gandla Tirupathi and another person from Vemulaghat Village of Thoguta Mandal in Siddipet district. The petitioners complained that the interim orders issued by the court on land acquisition for the Mallanasagar project were not heeded to by these officers and they were responsible for eviction of the petitioners from his own land, without complying with the procedure.

The judge had passed interim orders in 2018 to the land acquisition authorities, asking them to dispose of the objections raised by the landowners before the lands were acquired for the project. The court had also directed the officials to provide adequate copies of detailed project report in Telugu. This too was not done.

The court held the officials guilty and sentenced Jayachandra Reddy for simple imprisonment of four months and a fine of Rs 2,000. He shall also pay costs of Rs 50,000 to the petitioners within four weeks.

Collector P. Venkatrami Reddy shall suffer simple imprisonment for three months and a fine of Rs 2,000. He shall pay costs of Rs 25,000 to the petitioners. Krishna Bhaskar shall pay a fine of Rs 2,000.

The court also set aside the award passed by the government to the petitioners’ land, as it has lapsed after two years.