A special CBI court here today granted bail to suspended IAS officer B P Acharya, prime accused in the case of alleged irregularities in APIIC-Emaar properties deal.

It was the fourth bail petition of the 1983 batch officer who was Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary when arrested by the CBI on January 31, this year.

The court granted conditional bail to Acharya, who was chairman and managing director of the state-run Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), directing him to deposit a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties for execution of the bail.

He has also been asked to appear before CBI officials here, on every Friday.
The court upheld his counsel's contention that CBI's probe into the Emaar scandal was over and that his client, who is now in judicial custody, should be released on bail.

The defence had contended that some of the accused in the case including industrialist Koneru Prasad, Emaar MGF Finance Head (South) G Venkata Vijay Raghav and Emaar MGF Land Managing Director Shravan Gupta were out on bail.

In its chargesheet filed on February 1 against Acharya and others comprising individuals as well as private companies, the CBI had charged them under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act for alleged irregularities in land transfer and sale of apartments in the township project at Gachibowli here.

In its FIR in August last year, the CBI charged Acharya of entering into a criminal conspiracy with officials of the Emaar Group and unknown public servants, to cheat APIIC and secure wrongful gains to Emaar.

It had earlier alleged that APIIC was deprived of its legitimate revenue share to the tune of Rs 43.5 crore from the integrated township project developed jointly with Emaar Group, even as Emaar Properties and Emaar MGF obtained a pecuniary gain of about Rs 167 crore.