Hyderabad: The Hayathnagar police on Friday arrested former chairman of the Bhoodan Board Gunna Rajender Reddy for issuing fake ownership documents for land parcels that were donated by landowners to Acharya Vinoba Bhave in the 1950s.
The police has already arrested 13 others who were involved in the land distribution racket relating to about 100 acres of Bhoodan land worth hundreds of crores of rupees in Batasingaram on the city outskirts.
Rajender Reddy, 53, was chairman of the AP Bhoodan Board from 2012 to 2014. Police said that during his tenure, he collected money and gave ownership documents for land in the Vinobha Nagar Development Aut-hority, of which he is chairman. These certificates were fake.
Three complaints were lodged at Hayathnagar police station. Based on their inquiry, the police arrested 13 persons. Fur-ther inquiries revealed Rajender Reddy's role in the multi-crore land scam.
Officials said the scam took place in two different ways. In the first phase, board members and officials involved in land allotment diverted the land to their family members, relatives and close associates.
There was also evidence that the accused made their aides purchase patta lands near the Bhoodan land. After registering the patta lands in their names, the encro-achment onto the Bhoo-dan land would begin.
In this way, around 72,000 acres out of the 2 lakh acres donated during the Bhoodan movement was encroached upon.
Victims of fake deeds file cases
In the second process, the officials and members of the board collected money from eligible candidates for the land and issued them fake ownership certificates. The cheated landowners filed cases in court which are under investigation.
A revenue department task force set up by the TS government submitted a report in early in 2016 stating that more than 10,000 acres of such land worth Rs 5,344 crore was encroached upon by private persons and land grabbers. This included around 623 acres in Hyderabad and its surroundings.
