KTR claims Rs 10,000 crore scam in land near Hyderabad University

Addressing a news conference, KTR, as the BRS leader is popularly known, claimed that the state government illegally pledged 400 acres of forest land adjacent to Hyderabad Central University (HCU) to secure a Rs 10,000 crore loan from banks.

Terming the episode as a "criminal conspiracy" and a "betrayal of Telangana’s trust", he called Revanth Reddy the "architect, executor, and key player" behind the scandal and vowed to take up the issue with the RBI, the SFIO, the SEBI and other Central agencies.

KTR alleged that the land was illegally pledged without verifying ownership, conducting environmental assessments, or obtaining Forest Department approvals. The Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC), he alleged, mortgaged the land despite lacking a legal title, with no sale deed, mutation, or alienation process to establish ownership.

Claiming a glaring discrepancy in the land’s valuation, he said that initially, the government valued the 400 acres at Rs 30,000 crore, issuing a Government Order (GO) in June 2024 that pegged the per-acre value at Rs 75 crore. However, five months later, in November 2024, a new valuation by another agency reduced the per-acre value to Rs 52 crore, and a subsequent open-market assessment further slashed it to Rs 41.6 crore, bringing the total value down.

KTR questioned the rationale behind this drastic reduction, alleging it was a deliberate move to facilitate the transfer of the land to Revanth Reddy’s associates at a fraction of the inflated value.

Citing the Stamps and Registration Department, KTR noted that the market value in the Kancha-Gachibowli area is Rs 26,900 per square yard, translating to a total value of Rs 5,239.84 lakh for 400 acres. "How can land worth Rs 5,000 crore be inflated to Rs 30,000 crore and then conveniently reduced to Rs 16,640 crore? This is a textbook case of financial manipulation," he charged.

He accused a bank of gross negligence in approving the Rs 10,000 crore loan without verifying land ownership or conducting basic due diligence. KTR also claimed that a BJP MP played a central role in facilitating the scam.

"This BJP MP will be named soon. The state government has promised undue benefits to him through this deal," he said, warning that the Central government’s inaction would confirm a BJP-Congress nexus.

He alleged that hundreds of acres of forest land were bulldozed overnight, destroying trees and wildlife habitats. "This wasn’t just about financial loot - it was about erasing Telangana’s green cover and robbing mute animals of their homes. The nation watched in horror as Revanth Reddy’s government unleashed this ecological vandalism."

The BRS leader cited a 1996 Supreme Court ruling that classifies land with forest characteristics, such as the point-four canopy present in the 400 acres, as forest land, regardless of ownership records. Under the Forest Conservation Act of 1980, such land cannot be pledged, sold, or used for non-forest purposes without Central government approval, a step the state government allegedly ignored. No environmental impact assessment was conducted, and forest department permissions were bypassed, making the entire operation illegal, he added.