Hyderabad: P Ramachandrudu alias Chandraiah Yadav (53), who is the main accused in the Bachupally land scam worth Rs 100 crore was arrested by the Bachupally police on Tuesday.
Former corporator G Suryanarayana Reddy alias Suresh Reddy and two contract workers at the sub-registrar's office in Medchal, V Saibaba and S Murali Krishna, had been arrested earlier.
Inspector K Balakrishna Reddy of the Bachupally police said that Chandraiah Yadav has been in the real estate business from 1999 and during his stint as union leader at Dr Reddy's Labs, he met Suresh Reddy and the two conspired to grab land in Suraram, Gajularamaram and Bachupally villages.
Suresh Reddy gave Chandraiah Yadav Rs 12 lakh to execute the plan.
As all the land records since 1983 have been digitised, they decided to focus on land records before 1982. They trapped two contract workers and with their help, they removed original mortgage documents related to seven different plots of land and replaced them with fake sale deeds. The two contract workers were paid Rs 5 lakh to allow this substitution.
When the scam broke and the three men were arrested, Chandraiah took the original documents which were in his possession, and the rubber stamps, and burnt them in a field in Kistaipalli village in Jinnaram mandal.
The police gained access to the original documents with the help of farmers who are members of the Syndicate Farmers Service Cooperative Society.
Chandraiah Yadav also purchased a rubber stamp-making machine on which he made all the stamps related to the sub-registrar's office at Medchal. He got the sales deeds typed on a typewriter in Shapur after preparing the drafts on his own laptop, said the police.
Police arrested Chandraiah and recovered from his possession vehicles, mobiles, rubber stamps and the rubber stamps making machine.
