Hyderabad police arrest MD of South India Research Institute for alleged land scam

The Managing Director allegedly colluded with a joint sub-registrar to undervalue land before selling it.
Hyderabad police arrest MD of South India Research Institute for alleged land scam
Hyderabad police arrest MD of South India Research Institute for alleged land scam
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Chairman and Managing Director of South India Research Institute Private Limited (SIRIS), Gokaraju Subba Raju, was arrested by the Rachakonda police from his Jubilee Hills residence on Thursday, for his alleged role in a land registration fraud case in L B Nagar.

The Times of India reported that the police arrested 65-year-old Gokaraju, for allegedly colluding with Medchal joint sub-registrar T Rameshchander Reddy, and selling 10,950 square yards of land in 2015, for an undervalued price.

"The sub-registrar should have collected 35,000 per square yard stamp duty for the land, but instead, in collusion with businessman Raju, collected only 13,000 per square yard, causing 1.45 crore loss to the government. The businessman had also evaded lakhs of rupees of income tax,“ ACP, LB Nagar, P Venu Gopala Rao told TOI.

Reports add that the duo were booked under sections of the IPC dealing with cheating and dishonesty, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust by public servant and section 82 of Indian Registration Act.

The case comes against the backdrop of the Telangana unit of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) conducting several raids across the state on Wednesday.

The raids and searches were conducted at 141 offices of the Stamps and Registration (S&R) Department on the orders of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

The Chief Minister's Office also said that one in five land deals in Telangana, were 'benami', thereby causing a loss to the state exchequer.

"The government got information that all the Benami transactions are not being uploaded by the officials in collusion with those registering the documents. The government came to know that there are about 20 percent of such registrations," a statement said.  

Last week, the Cyberabad police unearthed a massive land scam, when it arrested Kukatpally sub-registrar R Srinivasa Rao, along with PS Parthasarathi and PVS Sharma, directors of two firms.

According to the police, Srinivasa Rao aided the transfer of several hundred acres of government land to the other two individuals, which resulted in a loss of over Rs 500 crore, to the state government.

Besides ordering an inquiry by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the Telangana government also issued transfer orders to 29 sub-registrars and joint registrars from the Stamps and Registration Department.

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