Century-Old Hyderabad Palace Sold For Rs 300 Crore With Forged Documents

Forged documents have allegedly been used by an employee of a private company to sell the century-old Hyderabad Palace worth Rs 300 crore to a Kashmir-based hospitality firm. The police have arrested the key accused in the case while a few others are also expected to be involved in the case.

According to a report in The Times of India, Sundaram Kolrukudro Ravindran (64 ), a resident Hyderabad, was arrested by officials of the Economic Offences Wing. He has been booked for cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The police have also said that they are examining the roles of two brothers of the Kashmir-based firm, Iris Hospitality, Amit Amla and Arjun Amla in connection with this case.

Niharika Infrastructure, a Mumbai-based construction firm, has alleged that it had bought a century-old heritage property, known as Kingkothi, measuring 28,106 square yards at Nazri Bagh Palace in Hyderabad from the Nazri Bagh Palace Trust three years ago.

When officials of the company visited Hyderabad in June this year, they found out from the office of the Hyderabad registrar that the palace had recently been transferred to the name of Iris Hospitality.

"During inquiries, it transpired that all the accused including two former employees of Niharika Infrastructure had made a sale deed with Iris Hospitality in January this year and sold the property," an official was quoted as saying by TOI.

"Ravindran and Suresh Kumar had signed on behalf of the company even though they were not authorised to do so."

Meanwhile, the police have reportedly stumbled upon some "strong" evidence in the form of emails exchanged between Kumar and Ravindran which mention about the Hyderabad palace.

The police were also quoted in the TOI as saying that after registering the criminal offence, they had issued lookout notices against the accused. This has been done because the police suspect that the accused may try to flee the country. Several cases of economic offenders escaping from the country have already been reported in the recent past.

This came to light recently when the immigration department in Hyderabad intimated the police that Ravindranhad tried to board a flight to Singapore in October 10, but had been stopped by the immigration officials due to the lookout notice against him.

The palace is a heritage property which was the last residence of the last Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan before its accession to India. Nizam died in 1967 due to illness. The palace consists of the main building, now converted into a hospital, controlled by the government.

Image used are representational.