The CBI today informed the Andhra Pradesh High Court that it is willing to investigate the IMG Bharata land deal case as per court directions.

The high court had asked the CBI in August to file its reply and state what were its constraints in probing the IMG Bharat land deal case. Following the directions, CBI's DIG (Hyderabad Branch) H Venkatesh today filed a counter affidavit on behalf of the CBI and Union of India (represented by its Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training) in the court.

I humbly submit that the fourth respondent (CBI represented by its director) and sixth respondent (Union of India), are willing to take up the investigation of the said case and abide by the directions that may be issued by this court in this regard or in respect of the transactions relating to and the matters connected with MoU/sale/agreement of land, entered into by the second respondent (AP government) at unconscionably low prices and in a non-transparent manner with the fifth respondent (IMG Bharata Academies Private Limited), the CBI officer said. The court then posted the matter to October 1. Earlier, after hearing two petitions filed by Jaganmohan Reddy's financial advisor V Vijay Sai Reddy and one A B K Prasad requesting the court for a CBI probe into the matter, the court had directed the government to file a counter affidavit.

The alleged scam related to the sale of 830 acres of land in and around Hyderabad to IMG Bharata, by the previous Chandrababu Naidu regime for establishing sports facilities in 2004 at a discounted rate of Rs 50,000 per acre.

Later, the YSR government in September 2006 cancelled the allotment by the TDP government and referred the matter to CBI to probe issues relating to the land allotment to this company and the benefits offered to it.

PTI