HC exonerated two officials accused in HYDRAA complaint

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Saturday directed the investigation team not to take any coercive action against two government officials against whom the Cyberabad Economic Offences Wing (EOW) police had filed criminal charges on a complaint filed by HYDRAA.

The court directed the investigation team to issue notices under Section 35(3) of the BNSS (formerly Section 41-A of the CrPC) and hear the arguments of the accused officials before taking any action against them.

The Cyberabad EOW had arrested six officials for promoting illegal construction in lakes and ponds based on a complaint filed by HYDRAA Commissioner AV Ranganath on August 30. The FIR invoked sections relating to criminal conspiracy, embezzlement, disobedience, abetment, criminal conspiracy, fabricated evidence, breach of trust by public servant, among others.

The two accused officials, Phool Singh, Tahsildar of Bachupally, and K. Srinivasulu, Deputy Director, Survey and Land Registry, Medchal-Malkajgiri, challenged the registration of the cases and sought a stay of the criminal proceedings and approached the Supreme Court.

According to the complainant, the Errakunta pond was 3.033 acres in size but the permissions were granted based on incorrect geo-coordinates, which placed the structures 75 metres away from the actual location of the water body. The complaint also alleged that the Survey and Land Records officer did not provide sufficient documentation for the survey and may have been biased against the encroachers by changing the coordinates.

The court was neither inclined to stay the criminal proceedings nor to drop the charges, but instructed the police to follow due process.