Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the fake land deeds racket has arrested 38 offenders after seizing fake land documents relating to 52 assets they encroached upon in Prakasam district.
Disclosing this at a media conference here, Prakasam District Collector A.S. Dinesh Kumar and Superintendent of Police Malika Garg said that 72 accused had been identified as involved in the racket and efforts were on to nab others.
Five of the arrested persons belonged to one political party, another five persons belonged to another, and one had even contested elections in the past, the SP said.
As many as 54 cases were registered following complaints from the aggrieved persons, and 572 registered documents were seized as part of the probe, they explained.
The SIT, headed by the Joint Collector and comprising, among others, two Additional Superintendents of Police, three Deputy Superintendents of Police and a registrar, was conducting an in-depth probe, they informed.
As many as 1,200 fake judicial and non-judicial papers and 60 fake seals of officials were seized from the offenders, they said. Seventy-two documents were identified as fake during the probe, they said. The fake documents seized were related to Prakasam (108), Guntur (8), Krishna (1), Bapatla (8) and Nellore (2). The complaints received from the aggrieved persons were Ongole (86), S.N. Padu (19) and one each from N.G. Padu, Tangutur and Chimakurthy.
Sub-SITs formed
Similar rackets had also been perpetrated in Kanigiri and Markapur divisions, and sub-SITs formed to probe the five cases registered so far there, they said.
They said all registrations done based on fake documents would be cancelled and correct revenue records put in place. The offenders would be prosecuted. Criminal action, as well as departmental action, would be initiated against erring officials who were found hand-in-glove in such transactions, they added.
Modus operandi
Giving the modus operandi of the erring realtors, they said the offenders identified prime lands remaining vacant for over two decades and prepared fake documents for lands involved in civil disputes to create multiple encumbrances to make money illegally in the process.
The offenders had also mortgaged prime property with banks based on forged documents and absconded before the bank officials unearthed the cheating. They also created fake general power of attorney and death certificates for property owned by unsuspecting old persons.
It had come to the notice of the SIT that some persons had invested money to make windfall profits in transactions with fake documents. They had also occupied land assigned to Dalits with fake documents.
The racket came to light when Ongole Mayor G. Sujatha and Prakasam Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency member Ch. Komaleswari and Ongole Mayor G. Sujatha took the issue of certain persons creating Wills with fake documents for a property in Mukthinuthalapadu village on the outskirts of Ongole.
The SP said history sheets were being opened against the accused. Preventive Detention Act would also be invoked against them, she added.
