Hyderabad: A simmering land dispute in Hyderabad’s Vattinagulapally has spilled into the open, with a man named Satish Shah accusing a sitting Telangana minister’s family of orchestrating a systematic campaign to seize nearly 27 acre of land his family has occupied for over five decades.
Shah claims the trouble began after the Telangana High Court ordered a mandal survey of the disputed property. Ponguleti Harsha Reddy, the son of Telangana minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, first arrived at his home making demands of two to three acre. This quickly escalated to the entire 27-acre plot, Shah claimed.
When the family refused, the situation turned hostile.
According to Shah, a land survey was conducted by a surveyor named Srinivas without any prior notice to the family. A panchanama (formal land inspection) was also carried out in their absence. The Telangana High Court has since suspended that panchanama.
The dispute then took a more alarming turn. Shah alleges that JCBs and bulldozers were brought in overnight and boundary walls were demolished as “a brazen attempt” to physically take over the land. He identified Raghava Constructions as the firm behind the demolition.
Shah said his family has faced five separate attacks and has received death threats. Despite possessing court orders that permit them to access the land, he claimed the police have been blocking them and ignoring their complaints entirely. He alleges the police are under political pressure.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao visited the site on Monday, where he alleged that government machinery was being weaponised to benefit a political family. He pointed to a police officer who filed the first information report (FIR) in the case, Habibullah Khan, who was subsequently transferred.
“This raises serious questions about political interference,” KTR said, announcing that the BRS would pursue the matter through both political and legal channels. He urged others in similar situations to come forward.
Meanwhile, the other landowners linked to a disputed land parcel in Vattinagulapalli said the issue was a private family matter and denied any connection with Telangana minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy or Raghava Constructions.
Addressing a press conference, Avinav Shah, Akshay Shah and Sudhir Shah, co-owners of land in Survey no 245, along with other family stakeholders, said the dispute pertained to long-standing disagreements among family members over boundary demarcation and distribution of land across adjoining survey numbers.
Akshay Shah rejected claims linking the matter to Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, asserting that neither the minister nor his associates had any involvement in the land in question. He also denied that any development agreement had been signed with Raghava Constructions.
He said allegations that BRS leaders that the minister was attempting to encroach upon the land by misusing their official position were “baseless and politically motivated.”
This post was last modified on April 2, 2026 10:14 pm