TV
If you wish to buy a piece of land and construct your dream house in Bhubaneswar, beware of fraudsters. The Special Crime Unit (SCU) of the Commissionerate Police in Bhubaneswar has busted a land fraud racket. Earlier, five fraudsters were arrested in this connection. Recently, two more persons have been held.
An investigation has uncovered the operations of an organised fraud syndicate in the Capital City that preys on unsuspecting individuals who have left their land unattended for extended periods. The modus operandi of the culprits involves procuring certified copies of genuine sale deeds, then fabricating convincing counterfeit documents, and presenting these to victims as authentic records.
Even a head clerk of a Sub Registrar office, Kamala Swain reportedly fell victim to the land fraud racket.
“I have two daughters and they have got married. After our retirement, we had bought the land near our daughters’ houses with our entire savings with the hope that our daughters will look after us in our post retirement life. We fell prey to the fraudsters and our entire saving and hard work went down the drain,” rued Kamala.
Kamala had bought the land in Chandaka area with her entire saving. However, she was the victim of the fraudsters. The matter came to the fore when somebody else prevented Kamala from taking possession of the land. After she registered a complaint at the police station, it was found in the investigation that a woman named Sushila Patnaik has duped Kamala in the name of Sanjukta Panigrahi. It was further found in the investigation that the woman fraudster has duped many persons by changing her names frequently.
The whole racket was busted following the arrest of the woman and her associate Arup Haldar. Police have so far arrested as many as seven persons involved in the racket.
“We have arrested the woman and her associate Arup Haldar. Both of them will be forwarded to the Court today,” said Crime Unit DCP Umakanta Mallik.
As per police sources, the arrested accused have several cases pending against them in various police stations. They are also facing land fraud related cases in EOW.
Special Crime Unit had earlier arrested five persons including Khandagiri Sub Registrar office head clerk Sanjay Sarangi. Many important documents, government stamps and seals were seized during the raid.
“The fraudsters were selling lands to different parties by forging documents,” said DCP Mallik.
