Visakhapatnam: The staff of Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda) seem to have not learnt lessons from the past. In connection with the Rs 536-cr land scam, the government suspended some of them a few years ago. However, it didn’t deter other staff members. With the recent ACB trap on a circle inspector, the role of Vuda officials in a land transaction also came under scanner. It is learnt that with the help of Vuda officials, realtors got the information about a vacant land which has high value in MVP Colony and got it registered in the name of a fake beneficiary.
The actual owner of the land died in 2013 but left a legal will transferring that piece of land to his daughter who lives in Chennai. On a tip off from Vuda staff, realtors created fake identity of a woman claiming to be the daughter of the actual owner, who died in 2013. The realtors also tried to sell the said land to a builder and took some advance. The builder, who sensed foul play, started pressurising the realtor to pay back the advance money. With no respite, the builder approached the III town police and lodged a complaint against the realtor.
It was at that point, III Town (Crime) CI S. Konda got involved in the issue and offered to ‘settle’ it against bribe. While the issue was related to law & order, Konda, being a crime CI, got involved in the case surpassing his jurisdiction. Since the CI demanded hefty amount to settle the case in his favour, the realtor who got the land registered fraudulently, approa-ched the ACB, who laid a trap and caught the CI while accepting the bribe.
Now, the realtor unknowingly got into the trouble as his fraudulent way of getting the land registered has been exposed. “The role of both Vuda and the registration department is also being probed. How can the realtor access all the proceedings of the land allotment done to the actual owner? He could have not accessed all the information without the job of an insider at Vuda,” opined an ACB official.
According to ACB officials, the said plot belonged to one S. Govind Rao, who was allotted the plot by the Vuda as compensation to a land site lost by him at Balacheruvu Road extension project. Vuda has given the authorisation after collecting the differential amount. Due to some reason, Rao could not get it registered in his name.
