The Hyderabad High Court on Monday pulled up the Andhra Pradesh CID for its slack investigation into the money trail of AgriGold and Akshaya Gold companies. The court directed the agency to speed up this part of investigation.

A division bench comprising Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice S V Bhatt gave this direction, while hearing arguments on the Public Interest Litigations.

The Special Government Pleader Krishna Prakash informed the court that the CID lacked the technical wherewithal to conduct forensic audit and therefore had written to the government to sanction funds for engaging professional auditors for this purpose in AgriGold case. The government had given its approval and the investigation into money trail would begin soon, he said.

The bench remarked that this exercise could easily have been conducted by tracing the money from bank accounts and by checking all the registration documents of properties bought and sold by the company. Expressing unhappiness at the tardy pace of investigation, the bench ordered the Andhra Pradesh government to speed up the investigation and submit a report.

The bench identified two properties - 85.38 acres CRDA approved layout in Keesara, Vijayawada and 1307 acres property in Hasanapuram, Prakasam district - for immediate sale to fetch mony to disburse to the depositors.

It directed the Agrigold's senior counsel L.Ravichander and petitioner's counsel N S Arjun Kumar to get their clients to scout for buyers for these properties by the time of next hearing on September 30.  In the matter of Akshaya Gold scam, the bench expressed unhappiness at the lack of progress in investigation by the CID.

When the counsel for the company said all key persons were in jail and all records, computers, etc. had been seized by the police, making it difficult to come up with list of properties of the company.

The bench directed the AP government to come up with a list of properties as per records and documents seized by the CID by the time of next hearing i.e. on 30th September.

Also Read: Will AgriGold Victims ever get their Money Back?

BY M. DIVYA SRI