After the Cyberabad police unearthed a massive land scam in Hyderabad involving the illegal transfer of 796 acres of government land to private individuals by the Kukatpally sub-registrar, the Telangana government has ordered an inquiry by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
On Monday, Cyberabad police arrested sub-registrar R Srinivasa Rao, along with PS Parthasarathi and PVS Sharma, directors of two firms. The allegation is that Srinivasa Rao aided the transfer of government land to the other two individuals, which resulted in a loss of over Rs 500 crore, to the state government.
The police also accused Srinivasa Rao of exploiting loopholes, and paying only Rs 65 lakh as stamp duty on the purchase of hundreds of acres of land.
While it was initially estimated that the land scam involved 693 acres, the police have increased that estimate to 796 acres
According to PTI, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has also instructed the police to crack the whip on registration offices.
“Conduct raids on 141 registration offices across the state on Wednesday, seize the documents which are not uploaded,” KCR reportedly said.
The Times of India reported that KCR transferred 29 sub-registrars and joint registrars from the Stamps and Registration Department.
Soon after the scam came into light, the CM also scrapped the ‘anywhere registration of land’ scheme, which was a special project launched in undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2013.
Stating that the changes would be valid immediately, KCR said that the project was being misused by officials. He also withdrew the powers given to sub registrars and registrars under Section 47-A of the Registration Act.
ACB officials were also reportedly directed to keep a close watch on the activities of registrars.
The scam came to light after Medchal district registrar N Saidi Reddy registered a complaint at the Kukatpally police station.
In the complaint, he alleged that Parthasarathi executed four registration deeds in favour of Sharma, when a memo from 2007 showed that the land belonged to the state government.