Bhubaneswar: The Special Crime Unit (SCU) of the Commissionerate Police in Bhubaneswar has busted a land fraud racket with the arrest of five persons.
The SCU has seized fake seals, documents and mobile phones from the possession of the accused persons.
The accused persons have been identified as Bikash Ch Panda (53) of Madhusudan Nagar, PO: Tulasipur in Cuttack district; Simanchal Mohanty (62) of Nankar under Jagatpur police station limits in Cuttack district; Prasanna Ku Mishra (58) of Kapaleswar under Choudwar police limits in Cuttack district; Biswajit Behera of Sobara under Byasanagar police limits in Jajpur district; and Sanjaya Ku Sarangi (57) of Baseli Sahi, under Baseli Sahi police limits in Puri district serving as Head Clerk in Sub Registrar office Khandagiri.
According to an official press release, on 10th December 2022 as per the order of the JMFC (O) a case was registered in Chandaka police station and the case was subsequently taken over by the SCU on 10th August 2023 based on its gravity as an organized racket of fraudsters was involved.
The complainant, a woman from Ganjam had reported that she was having a piece of land in Paikrapur Mouza and without her knowledge, her land was sold to two different women in the year 2019 by preparing forged and factious documents.
The SCU team examined all aspects of the case and could know that a larger racket of professional fraudsters was involved in the fraudulent transaction of the land who have prepared forged sale deed, voter card and other documents and sold the land consisting of 100 dcml to two women and also have taken Rs 60 lakhs from them.
Investigation of the case so far reveals that one Chinmaya Dalei of Nayagarh contacted one Biswajit Behura, whose name and mobile number were posted in an online property sale portal. When Chinmaya Dalei contacted Biswajit Behura, he in turn introduced Bikash Panda and assured him to give him a good piece of land on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.
Accordingly, the accused persons in a criminal conspiracy with Simanchal Mohanty of Jagatpur, and Prasanna Mishra of Chowdwar, prepared a forged sale deed in respect of the land owned by Sanjukta Panigrahi and sold 100 dcml to Puspalata Swain and Kamala Swain who are relatives of Simanchal Dalei by producing an imposter as Sanjukta Panigrahi.
The fraudsters in connivance with the Head Clerk of Sub-Registrar Khandagiri Sanjaya Ku Sarangi deliberately on dt 26.06.19 applied for a home visit and registration of the sale deed and the application was accepted and accordingly, as per Rule 38(2) of India Registration Act, Sanjaya Ku Sarangi was authorized to do a home visit. But surprisingly on the same day instead of doing a home visit in Ganjam where the applicant resides and mentioned that as she is ill she can’t come to the office physically, the Head Cleark Sarangi did the formalities on the road in Bhubaneswar and identified the imposter as Sanjukta Panigrahi and subsequently on his report the land was transferred to the buyer.
The modus operandi which the fraudsters were adopting was quite unique. Initially, they were posting advertisements on the online property sale portal and once the victim contacted them on the given mobile number, they used to convince them by producing the forged sale deed and other documents which creates a sense of belief in the minds of the buyer to accept the forged documents to be genuine.
The accused persons arrested are professional fraudsters and were previously arrested in similar types of crimes vide Chandaka police station Case No 132/19 and are on bail.
The accused persons are suspected to have participated in many similar types of cases which are under investigation.
The accused persons arrested are mostly land brokers, from whom many suspected forged land records, official seals of different Tehsildars, Sub-Registrars and other articles have been seized.
The release said that Biswajit Behura used to contact the victims and introduce them to his associates. Bikash Panda and Prasanna Mishra with the help of their associates prepared the forged documents and arranged the imposter. Simanchal Mohanty prepared the forged sale deed which was used for the transfer of the land and Sanjaya Ku Sarangi, the Head Clerk of Sub-Registrar Khandagiri helped the accused persons in making a home visit and identified the imposter. In this case, many other accused persons are still absconding and the SCU is working on it for their early arrest.
Police said during the house search of the accused persons forged land records, Aadhar Card and seals of different offices were seized which were used to prepare the forged sale deed and other land records.
The SCU is trying to unravel the entire racket and involvement of other accused and their involvement in other similar cases. The five accused persons were forwarded to court today and will be brought on police remand for further collection of evidence in this case.
Further police have requested the public that if anyone is a victim of fraud done by the arrested accused persons, they may please contact Special Crime Unit BBSR-CTC.
