The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) has found prima facie evidence of the defining of the boundary of the capital area (Amaravati) in such a way that it benefited some ‘connected people’ holding land on the fringes, during its inquiry into a fraudulent sale.
For instance, the sale-cum-agreement of land belonging to P. Bujji, a resident of Venkatapalem village in Guntur district, in October 2015, which led to the exposure of huge cash transactions and numerous land registrations done before the declaration of Amaravati as the capital was just one case.
As per sources, it is one of the several irregularities which Additional Director-General of Police (CID) P.V. Sunil Kumar requested the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Chennai, and also the Income-Tax Department (ITD) to examine the evidence and submit their findings to enable the CID to proceed further in the matter.
‘2 major irregularities’
The CID has drawn their attention to two types of irregularities which formed a part of the larger ‘insider trading’ scandal that allegedly took place in Guntur and Krishna districts to the tune of 2,280 acres and 1,790 acres respectively.
The two major irregularities are redesigning the boundaries of the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) area such that the land of the suspected prominent individuals or their relatives fell right adjacent thereto and redrawing of the boundaries of the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) to bring in areas belonging to such persons into the CRDA zone.
These transactions took place between June 1 and December 31 of 2014 and the period thereafter and verification of the records of the Sub-Registrar Office and land pooling records maintained by the CRDA and Lands and Registration and Revenue Departments showed a clear breach of laws and multiple modus operandi of offences.
The lands were purchased in Thullur, Amaravathi, Tadikonda, Pedakurapadu, Mangalagiri, Pedakakani and Tadepalli mandals of Guntur district and Ibrahimpatnam, Penamalur, Vijayawada rural and Chandarlapadu mandals in Krishna district.
Citing these transactions, Mr. Sunil Kumar requested the ED to inquire whether money laundering or such fraudulent activities took place as some persons who did not even have PAN cards, and holders of white ration cards bought the lands by spending huge sums and most of them were cash transactions.
These buyers did not allegedly declare their incomes and were avoiding the payment of I-T in spite of having assessable incomes.
The I-T Department was asked to take suitable action against such defaulters.
Persons who were privy to the location of the capital purchased the lands just before a formal declaration thereof, certain highly placed individuals procured land through benami transactions, lanka, poramboke and government land towards the Land Pooling Scheme were fraudulently surrendered to receive returnable plots and the provisions of the A.P. Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfer) Act, 1977 and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 were violated.
