Three premises of Emaar-MGF and the offices of Raheja Mindspace in the city were raided on Monday by sleuths of the state Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) department who seized discs containing details of land allotment. The raids were on till late on Tuesday evening and are expected to continue on Wednesday.The two companies have come under the scanner for alleged irregularities in its allotment of land which they came to possess following joint ventures with the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). APIIC officials have been accused of joining hands with the two firms to defraud the government of its genuine share in the deal. In Tuesday’s raid, one key objective of V&E sleuths was to look for documents that may hint at the culpability of APIIC officials. According to allegations, acts of omission or commission of APIIC officials led to a revenue loss of over Rs 4,000 crore to the state government.
V&E sleuths also quizzed two top executives – B Ravindranath of Raheja Mindpsace and Vijay Raghavan of Emaar-MGF – on Tuesday. The premises of Emaar-MGF which were searched include those in Nanakramguda, Boulder Hills and Kondapur.
Controversies have plagued Emaar-MGF – a joint venture of Dubai-based Emaar Properties and MGF – for a while. It landed in trouble during the recently concluded Commonwealth Games in New Delhi too for the alleged shoddy job at the Games Village that it had constructed. It eventually led to the central government confiscating the Rs 183 crore performance bank guarantee furnished by Emaar MGF while ordering legal action against the firm for recovery of other expenditure for deficiencies and delays in construction of the Games Village.
Emaar-MGF was also slammed in various investigation reports of the APIIC whose management is now under a new set of officials. The reports had suggested that the matter be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI). However, the state government has chosen to renegotiate with Emaar-MGF to make the latter cough up the state’s share of the revenue. But MGF managers have been unwilling to concende nuch.
A city court had also ordered the Anti-Corrpution Bureau (ACB) to probe the APIIC land deal following a complain. Though the ACB is not known to have made any progress, the V&E department, following the same complaint, conducted the raids
