After the scam of some revenue department officials registering 796 acres prime Government land on the outskirts of Hyderabad in the name of a private company, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has scrapped the online "Anywhere Registration" system in Telangana.
Under this system a person could have registered any property in any Sub-Registrar office in the State.
The Chief Minister, who reviewed the issue of fraudulent registration of Government land at Miyapur with Rs587 crore, also ordered a Crime Branch CID enquiry into the case.
Police have already arrested three persons including the concerned Sub-Registrar R Srinivas Rao and the court have remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.
The review meeting was attended by the Ministers, Chief Secretary, Director General of Police and other senior officers. The Chief Minister directed the overhauling the registration department to remove loopholes to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
The Chief Minister asked the CBI officials to under take an in depth probe and bring the culprits to the book. He has also asked them to probe into the allegations that some Government officials had helped in securing loans from banks and other financial institution for the land deal.
The parcels of land which were illegally transferred to a private real estate company also included over which there were disputes between the Government and some private individuals. The accused conspired and prospered a General Power of Attorney from eight claimants of land and got the land registered in a private company’s name.
While the Government value of the land was being put at Rs587 crore the market value was stated to be at Rs10,000 crore.
The massive scam came to light when Medchal District Sub Registrar lodged a complaint with Cyberabad police about the fraud.
According to the police the accused sub Registrar had helped one PS Parthasarathi, director, Trinity Infra Ventures ltd to register four documents in favour of Suvishal Power Gen ltd, in which PVS Sharma is a director. The police have also arrested Parthasarathi and Sharma. Police have also moved a petition in the court for their ten day custody to question them.
In the raids and searches of the homes of three accused the police have recovered many key documents and incriminating material.
This is not the first time that Kukatpally Sub Registrar was caught. Earlier in 2013 he was suspended for fraudulent registration of 30 acres of government land in Gachibowli area of Hyderabad in the name of one Padma Raju. However using he clout Srinivas Rao came back to the same post in six months, which was in contravention of the rules.
That he was very much influential and well connected also reflected in the fact that h heads the Telangana Sub Registrars Association.
In the latest The Sub Registrar had helped in registering the lands despite repeated memos from the deputy collector of Serilingampally informing him that the land belonged to the government.
As investigations progress officials say more people were likely to be arrested.
Revenue department officials say that the scam has exposed the loopholes in the system which help the nexus of crooks and corrupt officials to register any property or land in anybody’s name.
