AgriGold Case: HC directed for auction of Haailand property with minimum price of 600 cr
andhrapradesh | Written by : Suryaa Desk
A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Friday directed the State Bank of India consortium to initiate steps for auction of the prime Haailand property in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, of AgriGold company by taking into consideration Rs 600 crore as the minimum price and to issue necessary auction notice and other statements for the purpose. All the bids received in response to the auction notice should not be opened, but placed before the court in a sealed cover and they would be opened by the court on February 8 next year, the bench directed the officer concerned of SBI consortium.
The bench of Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice SV Bhatt was passing this order in batch of petitions filed by the Telangana AgriGold Customers and Agents Welfare Association and others seeking CBI probe into AgriGold scam and return of the depositors’ monies.
The bench made it clear to AgriGold and Haailand property to bring the interested parties, willing to participate in the auction, before the court. All the bids should be submitted in sealed covers and the consortium has got the facility to apply required conditions and rules for auction in accordance with law. As for other properties, the bench said that it would finalise the minimum price of such properties during the next date of case hearing i.e. next week.
On this occasion, the bench ordered for return of Rs 7 crore out of a total of Rs 10 crore deposited before the court by the Subhash Chandra foundation of Essel-Zee group which has come forward earlier to take over the company. The bench said the remaining Rs 3 crore would be deposited in the AgriGold depositors’ account.
During the course of hearing, the counsel for SBI consortium told the court that it has fixed Rs 503 crore as minimum price for Haailand property, while the Subhash Chandra Foundation had earlier fixed it at Rs 550 crore, and urged the court to fix a price based on the said two prices.
When the depositors’ counsel said they have no objection to the said prices, the bench finalised the minimum price as Rs 600 crore for auction of Haailand property.
Responding to the plea of senior counsel Sridharan, appearing for Arka Leisure and Entertainment Pvt Ltd belonging to Haailand, the bench granted permission for withdrawal of petition filed earlier challenging the auction of subject property under the SARFAESI Act.