15 Arrested in Rs 3.9 Cr Registration Scam in Warangal
They had allegedly cheated the government by manipulating the Dharani and Bhu-Bharati land registration portals.
Warangal:Warangal police officials said they had busted a criminal gang involved in a Rs 3.9-crore registration scam in the Jangaon and Yadadri-Bhongir district. They had allegedly cheated the government by manipulating the Dharani and Bhu-Bharati land registration portals.
The investigation revealed that the gang tampered with 1,080 different land transactions across the two districts. This led to the filing of 22 separate criminal cases, seven in Jangaon and 15 in Yadadri.
Out of the 24 suspects, the police have arrested 15, while nine others were absconding. During the operation, police seized `63.10 lakh in cash, property documents worth `1 crore, laptops, computers and several mobile phones.
According to the Warangal police commissioner Sunpreet Singh, the scam was masterminded by Pasunuri Basava Raju and Jella Pandu, who operated online service centers in Yadagirigutta.
The gang targeted farmers and landowners coming for land registrations. They would collect the full registration fees from these persons, promising to handle the digital payments. Instead of paying the full amount to the government, the suspects used the ‘inspect’ element taken on the website and specialised mobile editing apps to lower the fee amounts on the digital applications.
To expand their reach, the plotters allegedly recruited Mee-Seva centre operators and local middlemen.
A suspect named Ganesh Kumar acted as a link, introducing the service to various centres. These middlemen would collect the total money from farmers and send it to the main leaders. In return for their cooperation, the leaders paid the middlemen and operators a 10 to 30 per cent commission from the stolen funds. They would provide the farmers with fake, edited receipts that appeared to show the full payment had been made to the government.
The police recovered a car, two laptops, five desktop computers and 17 mobile phones used in the commission of these crimes. The authorities are currently tracking the bank accounts and digital footprints of the remaining nine suspects who are still fleeing from the law.
Sunpreet Singh warned the people to be cautious when dealing with online land registrations and to ensure they receive official, verified receipts directly from government portals to avoid falling victim to such high-tech financial frauds.
