Officials swapped prime land in Rs 100 crore scam in Bengaluru
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Bengaluru: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) chairman said some employees of the department have been charged with running a scam of Rs 100 crore. The officials are accused of swapping prime land acquired by the BDA with another parcel of property.
Their actions caused a Rs 100 crore loss to the department.
The Chairman did not name the officials involved in the alleged fraud or how many employees were booked. He revealed that an outsider Nagaraj was involved in the scam.
The BDA had acquired about 4.3 acres of land way back in 1983 at village Banaswadi in Bengaluru East Taluk from a person named Eeranna. The payment for the same was deposited in the civil court. Nagaraj, later on, acquired a General Power of Attorney (GPA) from Eeranna showing that the land is his own. He formed a layout and sold it, said the chairman.
Nagaraj also got all the plots transferred to his name and applied to get the alternative site sanctions in his name. The BDA board has rejected his plea.
He added that the BDA acquired land from the revenue land owners and filed an application in the court saying that alternative sites have to be given to them. The High Court has directed the BDA to make a decision as per regulations.
In 2012, the BDA board decided to give 4.3 acres of land in various survey numbers in the Arkavathi Layout. Nagaraj applied again to the BDA asking to provide an alternative site stating that many areas in the land were in the buffer zone, where construction activity is not permitted. In 2014, the BDA accepted his plea and granted land parcels in Thanisandra and at various other prime locations.
The irregularities came to light when the BDA chairman asked the task force to investigate all the documents.
A case was registered at the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) on Saturday after a BDA task force submitted a report on the large-scale irregularities in the deal. The BMTF is a special police setup to safeguard government property in the city.