Assam: One more arrested in land forgery scam in Guwahati

GUWAHATI: The Guwahati police on Saturday arrested a lat Mandal in connection with a land scam in the city in which a racket involving government officials, advocates, and land mafias grabbed land from genuine landowners by using counterfeit land documents.

The arrested individual has been identified as Bapdhan Das (58), a lat mondol, Dispur Revenue Circle, Dispur. Das is the son of the Late Pabitra Ram Das, who stays at a rented accommodation near Gate No 7, Bharalumkh in the city. He originally hails from Dingdingi in Nalbari district.

The cyber cell of the city police has already registered case No 12/23 under 120 (B)/419/420 IPC, read with section 66 C/66 D IT Act, and added section 409/468/471 IPC.

The police have already arrested four persons – land mafia Tapash Choudhury, advocate Mainul Hoque, junior assistant of sub-registrat’s office in Guwahati, Nitul Das, and data entry operator and Dhrub Jyoti Barman in connection with the case.

Loopholes in DC Office Lead to Increase in Land Grabbing Cases in Guwahati

During the investigation of the case, it was revealed that land mafias are in close nexus with lawyers, government officials of the Sub Registrar's office, and the circle office to prepare fake land sale deeds to grab vacant land in Guwahati.

The mechanism of purchasing and selling land in the sub-registrar's office is in question because of "loopholes" in the mechanism land grabbing nexuses are formed in the city.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Guwahati police commissioner Diganta Barah, adding that the investigation has just started and with the preliminary investigation it is known that many officials of the sub-registrar office, Kamrup (Metro) district, circle office, land mafias, and lawyers are involved. He said that as the investigation furthers many people will be arrested.

Modus Operandi of Land-Grabbing Gangs

Talking about the modus operandi of the land grabbing gangs, the city police informed that land brokers, government officials of the sub-registrar office, Mohoris working with the sub-registrar office, advocates gang up and prepare a fake sale deed between two parties and then show it as registered in pre-1998 years and mostly dated December 31. After 1998, the process was digitized, said an official in the Kamrup (Metro) district commissioner's office.

"So before 1998 whatever land was sold or purchased the records are there in the record room of Sub- Registrar's office in Kamrup (Metro) district. The 'Volume Register' has the records of the sale deed," he added.

The Volume Register where all sale deeds are copied officially, of that particular year, in which this fake sale deed was shown to be registered, is taken out from the record room of the sub-registrar office unauthorized and proper entry is made by copying the contents of the Fake Sale Deed in that volume register.

While making an entry in the old volume register, sometimes entry is made in the remaining blank pages of that register, or additional blank pages are pinned up in that register to make the entry of the Fake sale deed illegal.

Once the entry is made in the volume register, the fake sale deed is reported to be lost in police stations, and the gang thereafter applies for a certified copy of the fake sale deed.

When applied for a certified copy of that particular sale deed, the officials of the sub-registrar verify that particular volume register and, as it is already entered in the volume register by the gang members, issue the certified copy of that fake sale deed which has now got the legal sanctity as it is issued by the appropriate government authority.

By submitting the certified copy of the forged sale deed of a plot of land, the gang applied for mutation in their names in the revenue circle office.

And mostly with the connivance of employees of the revenue office who are part of the nexus, the mutation process gets done in the name of someone else instead of the genuine land owner. With the help of a certified copy of the fake sale deed, which has legal sanctity now, and the mutation order and with muscle power or through the process of a civil court, the land mafia grabbed a plot of land in Guwahati.

Challenges Faced by the Police

"Police usually receive complaints of land grabbing but when probed mostly they get confused because both the parties (original owner and the land mafia nexus) have properly authorized documents, hence the matter is forwarded to the court," the police commissioner said.