Land registrations scam gets murkier

Two more sub-registrars arrested

​Hyderabad: The land registrations scandal turned murkier with the arrest of two more sub-registrars T Ramesh Chandra Reddy and Mohd Yousuf even as the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) began searches in the sub-registrar offices (SROs) across the state.

Amid allegations that majority of officials in the Stamps and Registration Department were hand-in-glove with each other and helping out land sharks and politicos on quid-pro-quo basis, the ACB began searches at the SROs across the state.

Sources in the ACB said the higher-ups in the stamps and registration department, including the district registrars were aware of the corrupt practices going on in the registrations. They cite the examples of the complaints lodged against sub-registrars of Medchal and Balanagar.

In one instance, T Ramesh Chandra Reddy, while working as LB Nagar sub-registrar in 2015, had undervalued the stamp duty for 10,950 square yards of private land located in Doctors’ Colony and registered it in the name of South India Research Institute Private Limited causing a revenue loss of Rs 1.3 crore.

However, the Ranga Reddy district registrar lodged a complaint against him, who is now Medchal sub-registrar, only after the Miyapur land scam surfaced. Following the complaint, Rachakonda police arrested Ramesh Chandra on Tuesday and sent him to prison.

The delayed action by the district registrar clearly shows that he did not try to take corrective measures despite being aware of the irregularities for long, the sources said.

Similarly, the higher-ups have lodged complaint against Balanagar sub-registrar, Mohammed Yousuf for allegedly registering hundreds of acres of government land in Hafeezpet in the name of different persons.

He was also accused of undervaluing the stamp fee causing huge revenue loss to the state exchequer.
Balanagar police arrested Yousuf on Tuesday based on the complaint lodged by the higher-ups of the stamps and registration department after Miyapur land scam surfaced.

Though Yousuf resorted to the illegal acts long ago, the higher-ups chose to lodge complaints only when the government turned up heat following Miyapur land scam. It clearly shows majority of officials in the department were hand-in-glove with each other and helping out land sharks and politicos on quid-pro-quo basis, the ACB sources said adding that the hard work done by the ACB would simply go waste as happened in the case of corrupt engineers of the GHMC.

It may be recalled the government had asked the ACB to secretly probe and submit a report against the corrupt engineers and the GHMC contractors, who have swallowed public money by executing road works in substandard manner. However, action is yet to be taken a year after the ACB submitted its report, the sources said.

In this backdrop, ACB searches began at SROs in Adilabad, Khammam, Mahbubnagar, Warangal, Karimnagar and Medak districts.

Confirming this, director general of ACB, J Purnachandra Rao said, “We have prepared a checklist to ascertain whether there was any wrongdoing in the SRO. We will submit a report to the government after completing the searches.”

The checklist will find out information such as number of documents presented for registration over a period, number of them registered and number of documents kept pending, reasons for keeping them pending, whether stamp duty was calculated as per the prevailing rates prescribed by the government.

He also said that the ACB officials were assisting the investigators probing the Miyapur land scam whenever they want to carry out searches at the places related to the accused.

The ACB unearthed gold ornaments weighing one kilo, Rs 2 lakh in cash and incriminating documents from Ramesh Chandra Reddy’s house, while assisting the local police.