| Posted on: 2012-01-30/22:03:41 | India - Fraud & Cyber Crime News | Others/ |
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The CBI arrested Andhra Home Secretary Bibhu Prasad Acharya on Monday for his alleged role in the Emaar Properties scam. The agency has already named him as the first accused (A1) in the case. The senior IAS officer — arrested on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy — was later produced before the special CBI court in Hyderabad which sent him to a two-day judicial custody. A 1983-batch IAS officer, Acharya was the managing director of the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) in 2005, when the Dubai-based Emaar had allegedly deviated from an agreement it had with the state government for developing luxury villas and a golf course in over 500 acres on the outskirts of Hyderabad. As per the agreement, Emaar with 74% holding in the project and APIIC with 26% stake would develop villas and sell them at a price fixed by both the stakeholders. While APIIC holds the stake in the project in lieu of the land allotted by the government towards the project, Emaar as a developer holds the majority stake. However, the CBI has alleged that the APIIC board with Acharya at the helm of affairs had allowed Emaar to take the state for a ride and make amendments to the agreement thereby reducing the APIIC’s stake to 6%. However, more than the state’s stake getting reduced to 6%, the Dubai-based developer is also accused of diverting hundreds of crores from the proceeds of land and villa sale from India. By appointing a private firm — Stylish Homes — to market the villas, Emaar is accused of recording false transactions and under-pricing the sale. The CBI has alleged that against an actual sale at Rs50,000 a sq yard, the price has been recorded at Rs5,000 a sq yard. The balance amount, which has not been shown on records, has allegedly been either siphoned off or diverted. |
| Source: D C | Location : Hyderabad |
