Cyberabad police to crack down land grabbers

• For the first time in city, history sheets of habitual land-related offenders will be presented
• Special training to police officials to deal with land cases
• 17 standard operating procedures formulated

To deal with the real estate mafia, CMP will be opening history sheets of habitual land-related offenders and their associates on par with rowdies and other criminals. A separate file will be maintained in all police stations to deal with major land disputes, besides displaying photos of the offenders

Sudheer Goutham

The Cyberabad Metropolitan Police is all set to crackdown on land-related frauds in its jurisdiction as illegal land cases are believed to have reached an all-time level owing to booming real estate market in and around HITEC City.

To effectively deal with the real estate frauds, including land grabbing, multiple registrations of plots and others, the police have introduced standard operating procedures (SOP).

“All the police officials in Cyberabad Police limits have been given special training to deal with the issue,” said CV Anand, Commissioner of Police, Cyberabad Metropolitan Police on Tuesday.

Until now the police officials were not of great help to the victims of land-related frauds as any such investigation involved establishing the authenticity of land documents for which the police had no special training.

Hence, whenever a complainant approached the police, they simply used to send them back, calling it a civil issue that should be dealt in a court of law.

To deal with the real estate mafia, CMP will be opening history sheets of habitual land-related offenders and their associates on par with rowdies and other criminals. A separate file will be maintained in all police stations to deal with major land disputes, besides displaying photos of the offenders. For fair inquiry and justice to rightful owner, over 17 SOPs have been formulated by the CMP which involves establishing authenticity of documents and providing protection. On Tuesday, the Cyberabad Police arrested a notorious land-grabber Baswana Ravindra who is believed to have cheated more than 150 people by selling fictitious plots in Survey Nos. 30, 31 and 32 Guttalabegumpet Village under the jurisdiction of Sherlingampally Municipality and Madhapur police station limits. The victims also include police officials and other public servants.

After entering into an agreement with original pattadars, Ravinder used to make layouts of land, divide them into plots, and then sell. Later, he again used to make a new layout of the same land and sell them to new purchasers. He even sold same plots to different purchasers and grabbed lands earmarked for society activities.

He also sold out land in Survey No. 34 adjacent to land area of which he made layouts. These lands actually belong to employees of CEAT Company.

Ravinder, a fugitive, was apprehended by a special team on Monday. A history sheet was opened against Ravinder and henceforth his movements would be monitored, the police said. History sheets ‘Land Grabbers Sheet’ would be opened against other such offenders who had been operating for decades through cheating, forgery and breach of trust.

“Efforts are on to grab other such offenders,” CV Anand told Hyderabad Hans, adding that the number of such habitual offenders might cross 40.