TIRUPATI: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) arrested a gang of six persons in connection with a major land scam involving 2,320 acres of land spread across 13 mandals in Chittoor district. A retired VRO, who has vast experience and knowledge about revenue records, tried to alienate and register Rs 500 crore worth land parcels to his four children, who are all co-accused in the case.
Disclosing the case details to media persons here on Sunday, CID DSP G. Ravi Kumar said that the gang tried to alienate 2,320 acres of land by resorting to all kinds of backdoor activities and by tactfully utilising the loopholes in the revenue department.
Following a complaint lodged by Somala Tahsildar A. Shyam Prasad Reddy that three persons identified as Rajan, Dharani and Madhusudhan tried to obtain pattadar passbooks by producing manipulated revenue records and online records, the Somala police registered a case on May 29, 2020. Further, Chittoor SP S. Senthil Kumar transferred this case to the CID.
“During the investigation, we noticed similarities between this case and an earlier land scam case reported at Peddapanjani mandal in the district in 2017. Interestingly, the three accused involved in the Peddapanjani land scam case are also the accused in the Somala case. One after another, we were able to unearth all land scams they were involved in,” the DSP said.
According to the DSP, the mastermind behind the huge land scam was identified as Mohan Ganesh Pillai (72). He worked as a grama karanam at 184 Gollapalle village in 1977-84 and after the abolishment of grama karanam system, he joined the government services as a VAO in 1992 and further worked as a VRO at Gollapalli village and subsequently retired in 2010.
“Mohan Ganesh Pillai had vast experience and knowledge about the revenue records. Using backdoor techniques and utilising loopholes, he tried to alienate about 2,320 acres of government land, which is worth Rs 500 crore, under 93 survey numbers spread across 13 mandals in the district by forging documents. When the village adangals were computerised, he manipulated revenue records and online records between 2005-2010,” the DSP said.
Mohan Gopal Pillai tried to register the 2,320 acres of government land in the name of his four children identified as M.G. Madhusudhan (40), M.G. Rajan, V. Komala (45) and K. Dharani. One K. Ramana (61), hailing from Charala in Chowdepalli mandal helped the retired VRO and his family members in forging online records in their favour.
The CID sleuths arrested five of the accused and launched a search operation to nab Dharani, who is at large. They seized revenue records pertaining to various land parcels as well from the possession of the accused and investigation into the case was on, the DSP said.
