Sale proposal of AgriGold properties gets High Court nod

​Hyderabad: In an interesting development related to scam-tainted AgriGold company, the High Court at Hyderabad on Tuesday accepted the proposal of the Andhra Pradesh government to conduct sale of AgriGold properties in the State through district level committees comprising of District Collector, District Registrar and a yet to be finalised member who could be from judicial side. 

This will be yet another method being attempted to speed up and attract buyers for the assets of AgriGold company so as to pay up the dues to lakhs of affected depositors. Meanwhile, the Subhash Chandra Foundation, part of Zee-Essel group, which filed an application seeking withdrawal from its attempt to take over the company and return of its Rs 10 crore deposited with the court, dramatically withdrew its application within 24 hours of filing. This led to speculation that the foundation is still seeking to come up with a proposal to take over the company. 

The division bench comprising of Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice S V Bhatt gave the go-ahead to the sale of properties through district committees while hearing the PIL petition filed by depositors’ association seeking a CBI probe into AgriGold scam and return of monies to lakhs of depositors in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. 

Andhra Pradesh Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas submitted to the bench that the State government was willing to advance some amounts of money to serve the interests of AgriGold depositors from the State, who constitute around 60 per cent of total depositors. 

He also sought permission from the court for the government to directly negotiate with the banks for ‘one-time settlement’ option on AgriGold properties that have been mortgaged with the banks. He also submitted to the court a list of 10 high value properties in the State along with three valuations – one, the official SRO value, two, the value given by a valuer and three, the value given by a realtor. 

The counsel for the PIL petitioner endorsed these values given by the government and sought speedy auction of the properties while the senior counsel for the AgriGold company sought 10 days’ time to come up with response to these values. The bench rejected this request saying that the depositors would be losing their faith in the process if much time is lost in the proceedings. It directed him to submit the response by Friday, June 8 to which date the case has been adjourned.

The counsel for petitioner Karanam Sravan Kumar requested the bench to bring pressure on the company on the lines of Supreme Court pressure on Sahara Group as over 32 lakh families of depositors were eagerly waiting for justice.

Responding to a query by the bench, Dammalapati Srinivas informed that the forensic audit of company accounts had been completed by the AP CID. The bench directed him to submit a copy for perusal of the bench on June 8. It also directed the Telangana government to come up with a list of high value properties in the State that can be put up for sale by June 8.