Sale of AgriGold assets: HC orders wide publicity

​Hyderabad: The High Court at Hyderabad on Friday ordered the sale of assets belonging to scam-tainted AgriGold company through District Committee comprising of District Collector, District Registrar and Secretary of District Legal Services Authority. A CID district-level officer will have to assist the Committee in conducting the sale, it directed.

The Division Bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice S V Bhatt gave these directions while hearing the PIL petition filed by the depositors’ association seeking a CBI probe into the scam and return of depositors’ money. The Bench also directed that the first sale of five identified properties will be conducted in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. Notification of sale must be issued within two weeks and a brief notice in two Telugu dailies, while detailed one must be uploaded on the website, the Bench directed.

It also wanted wide publicity to be given in the form of leaflets and notices affixed in local government offices and also through tom-tom. Senior counsel L Ravichander, appearing on behalf of AgriGold company, informed the Bench that two of the 10 properties proposed for sale by CID have been mortgaged with the Andhra Bank, while one property has been sold before attaching of assets in 2015. He also contended that the valuations given by the CID for the 10 properties were lower and submitted the valuations as per the company.

Andhra Pradesh Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas informed the Bench that the asset being claimed as sold has not been registered and only an agreement seems to have been made for sale in 2008. The Bench directed the senior counsel to produce the documents if any regarding that property in the next hearing.