Vijayawada: The govt issued orders on Wednesday to constitute state and district level committees to facilitate the auction of AgriGold properties. The committee will be chaired by the chief secretary and will include high-ranking officials. Financial expert T Kutumba Rao will assist in the evaluation and auction of AgriGold properties. Additionally, a representative from Agrigold will also be involved in the auction process.
At the district level, the committees will be led by the joint collector or revenue divisional officer and will include officials from various depts, including an additional SP or DSP from the CID. The district committees have been entrusted with critical preparatory tasks including physical verification of properties, collecting valuations from sub-registrar offices, obtaining fair market prices from authorised agencies, and ensuring the proper mutation of AgriGold lands in revenue records. These steps are intended to lay a solid groundwork for a transparent and legally compliant auction process. The govt directed both state and district committees to take immediate and necessary action to proceed with the auction and related legal processes.
The AgriGold Group operated a deceptive collective investment scheme, establishing over 130 shell companies to collect deposits as ‘advances for plots’, despite lacking sufficient land holdings. These funds were later diverted to unrelated sectors such as power, energy, dairy, entertainment, ayurvedic health, and farm land ventures without investor consent. The group engaged thousands of commission agents, eventually amassing deposits worth Rs 6,380 crore from over 32 lakh investors. The scam was uncovered following a probe by the Enforcement Directorate.
