Telangana High Court issues notice to IAS officer Naveen Mittal in land forgery case

Also issues notices to others in land forgery and illegal alienation case involving Evacuee Property in Hyderabad. Petitioner alleges criminal collusion, rent collection, and misuse of official authority

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has issued notices to senior IAS officer Naveen Mittal and several others in connection with serious allegations of forgery, criminal conspiracy, and illegal land alienation related to Survey No. 284/6 of Guddimalkapur village, Nanalnagar, Hyderabad.

The case was filed by Shanti Agarwal, who contended that the land in question was declared Evacuee Property under GO No. 388 dated December 20, 1954. She alleged that Mittal, in criminal collusion with public officials and private individuals, manipulated land records and issued a fraudulent No Objection Certificate (NOC) — without her knowledge — wrongly categorising the land as ‘Non-Evacuee’.

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Agarwal initially filed a criminal complaint before the XII Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hyderabad. The Magistrate took cognizance of offences against several accused (A2, A3, A4, A9–A23, A40–A42) based on prima facie evidence. However, cognizance against A1 — Mittal, IAS, and other officials (A5, A7) was deferred pending sanction for prosecution under Section 197 CrPC.

Despite filing a request for sanction on April 26, 2024, the Chief Secretary of Telangana has not acted within the three-month timeline mandated by the Supreme Court in Vineet Narain v. Union of India, the petitioner stated. Agarwal subsequently filed a writ petition challenging this inaction.

Justice K Lakshman, hearing the matter, issued notices to Mittal and the other accused and clubbed the petition with related writ appeals filed by the respondents.

In a related criminal petition, Agarwal argued that no prior sanction is required to prosecute Mittal, asserting that the alleged illegal occupation and commercial exploitation of government land fall outside the scope of official duties.

It was further alleged that Mittal, along with co-accused Hussain Bee (A2) and Atkher Hussain (A3), was personally collecting rent from the disputed property.

Taking cognizance of these arguments, Justice N Tukaramji issued notices to Mittal and the other accused, directing them to respond to the serious allegations.