Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy has accused Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief and former CM K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) and BRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) of putting the personal data and property records pertaining to 1.52 crore acres of land in the state, in the hands of those companies which have committed economic offences and have been taking refuge in tax havens.
Addressing the lower house in the fourth session of the Assembly, before passing The Telangana Record of Rights in Land (Amendment) Act on Friday, December 20, the CM accused BRS of creating a ruckus in the Assembly, only to prevent the state government from enacting a crucial legislation that would set right the wrongs perpetrated by the BRS government by introducing the Dharani Portal.
Land records go from Telangana to tax havens
Revanth explained that when Satyam Computers and Maytas were involved in cases related to international economic offences in 2011, IL&FS owned by Satyam Ramalinga Raju’s son Teja Raju acquired Maytas.
In 2019 when tenders were called for the development, operation and maintenance of Dharani Portal, IL&FS, E-Centric owned by Gade Sridhar Raju, a close confidante of KTR, and Vision Infotech, entered the contract as a joint-venture.
Also pointing out that Dharani Portal didn’t originate in the mind of KCR, Revanth Reddy said that Odisha government had implemented it in 2010 itself, with the same implementing agency (IL&FS), with the name e-Dharani.
“But after 4 years, CAG gave its report stating that the technology was not at all useful, and that the process followed to award the contract to IL&FS was wrong,” Revanth disclosed.
He also said that IL&FS became bankrupt in 2017 and got entangled in criminal cases, with its MD Ramesh Pawar, vice-chairman Harishankaran, former chairman Ravi Parthasaradhi and director Ram Chander serving time in jail for economic offences.
“When any company wants to enter into a tender, it is the state government’s duty to ensure that a company with criminal history are not entertained,” he asserted.
He questioned how KCR could murder the trust of the people, by handing over people’s data to alleged criminals who are not even Indian citizens and have been taking shelter in tax havens like the Cayman Islands in the US, and the British Virgin Islands.
Revanth said that IL&FS then changed its name to TerraCIS Technologies Ltd, by creating it as its subsidiary unit, which was a breach of multiple rules in the clauses of the agreement signed between Telangana State Technology Services (TSTS), which works under the MA&UD and had called for the tenders, and TerraCIS Technologies.
He said that the main story started there, when a Philippine-based company named Falcon SG, which bought 52% of Terra CIS’ shares, going on to acquire 99% stake in the company on October 28, 2021.
“Then Falcon Investments, a Singapore-based company owned by Gade Sridhar Raju bought 1% of Falcon SG’s shares and then went on to buy 100% of its shares.
According to the chief minister, Rahul Goswami, Anand Kumar, Lathika Devi Amma were all part of the Falcon Investments.
From there, Revanth claimed, that it changed multiple forms and created further smaller subsidiaries under them, with Sparrow Investments (Singapore), GW Sky Pvt Ltd (Singapore), Paradigm Innovations LLC (US), Hill Brook Investments Ltd (British Virgin Islands), Quintella (US) and a few more.
He said that the entire trail went down to Gateway Partners 2 Ltd based in Caymen Islands, Hill Brook Investments based in British Virgin Islands, and other companies and their heads taking shelter in tax havens, which wouldn’t cooperate with the Indian government if it wanted to bring them to justice.
He said that the implementing agency was supposed to work from the office of the chief commissioner of land administration (CCLA), as it maintains all the revenue records of the entire state, but that wasn’t done.
Despite having offices in Vijayawada, Bengaluru, Gurgaon and in the northeastern states, the company chose to work from distant countries, executing land revenue transactions between 9 pm and 6 am.
“Which government official was making these documents during that time,” Revanth questioned.
Reminding that there were laws in place, to prevent a person’s personal data like aadhar card, bank details and revenue records which couldn’t be shared with a third person, but Dharani Portal violated it, and farmers’ land records were all now located in other countries.
“When the state government ordered to transfer all that data to the National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Centre, but these people living in those tax havens are not cooperating. All the revenue records of the farmers and land owners across the state are in their hands. If sent my friends from the US to talk to them, but they are not ready to transfer the data,” Revanth cautioned.
He reiterated that the state government was very serious about the kind of offence committed by BRS leadership, and because they knew that their reality would be exposed during the discussion in the house, they chose to cause havoc and panic in the house, to prevent the 2024 Bill from being enacted.
Dharani fraud case studies
Revanth Reddy gave the example of how 100 acres of ‘Bhu Daan’ lands were transferred into the names of private individuals in Union coal and mines minister and BJP state president G Kishan Reddy’s native village Thimmapur in Kandukur mandal of Rangareddy district in the same way.
He revealed that the state government has already lodged a criminal case and would go to the bottom of that scam as well.
“Despite Kishan Reddy lodging a complaint when he was serving as the Union minister of state for home affairs, without any fear they went ahead and transferred the land,” Revanth underlined.
He said that it was just one case, and that there were thousands of such illegal transfer of lands which happened in a secret way, with the access to revenue records given to white-collar fraudsters who were hiding in tax havens.
Formula E ‘scam’
Coming to the Formula-E scam, Revanth Reddy explained that he learned of the “real game” in 2023, when the representative of FEO, one of the London-based implementing agencies of the race met him over Formula-E, and told him about the shady agreements between them and KTR, and had also urged him to give them a slight indication of approval, so they could swindle Rs 500 crore more from the e-racing event, for which Rs 55 crore payments were already made.
“I refused to do so questioning why the state government needed to allocate funds to conduct the race,” he added.
Questioning how a tripartite agreement then changed to bipartite agreement, and then payments of Rs 55 crore were made when the election code was in effect, Revanth Reddy said that he saved Rs 500 crore from being sent abroad in the forms of bonds, which had no Reserve Bank of India’s permission for transfer.
He further sought the Speaker’s permission to reveal the facts related to the Formula-E race scam, as the matter was sub-judice. “If I disclose anything now, KTR who has already approached the court, will go back to court and say I am trying to influence the municipal and police departments as those ministries are with me,” Revanth noted.
He said that it was only after deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka ordered a forensic audit of the alleged scam, that the BRS MLAs decided to stall the proceedings of the house, demanding a short discussion on Formula-E racing allegations.
“We spoke in the business advisory committee for hours, and BRS suggested nine issues to be brought up for discussions in this fourth session. Formula-E racing was not in those issues,” Revanth pointed out.
On the ruckus created by BRS MLAs, he asked the speaker to feel free to take any action he deemed right, and assured that the state government would support his chair.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Vivek Bhoomi | 
