Hyderabad: The Warangal police on Friday, January 16, said it unearthed a major scam worth Rs 3.90 crore related to the Dharani and Bhu Bharathi portals. As many as 15 people have been arrested in connection with the scam.
The prime accused were identified as Pasunari Basavaraju, Jella Pandu, and Maheshwaram Ganesh. All of them are natives of Yadadri district in Telangana.
The other accused were identified as Egajulapati Srinath, Yenagandhula Venkatesh, Koduri Sravan, Kolipaka Satish Kumar, Tadoori Ranjith Kumar, Dumpala Kishan Reddy, Dasarath Meghavat, Nara Bhanu Prasad, Gopaganu Srinath, Oggu Karnakar, Shiv Kumar and Aleti Nagaraju.
Addressing the media, Warangal Commissioner of Police Sunpreet Singh said that nine other accused are absconding. Rs 63.19 lakh in cash, property documents worth about Rs 1 crore, one car, two laptops, five desktop computers, and 17 mobile phones were seized from the accused.
Dharani Bhu Bharathi scam
Elaborating on how the scam worked, Singh said that the accused exploited technical loopholes in the portals. First, the accused targeted Dharani and, currently, Bhu Bharathi to embezzle the registration fee.
“Using a mobile application and technical knowledge, the accused altered digits on official online fee receipts at the time of challan payment.” the Commissioner said.
He added that by changing the figures, the accused paid a lower amount to the government while producing forged receipts showing higher payments. Singh said that Basavaraju, Pandu and Ganesh operated with the help of staff from Mee-Seva and private online computer centres across Jangaon district, Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district, and Nalgonda district.
The gang also appointed middlemen in Jangaon and Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri districts, offering commissions ranging from 10 per cent to 30 per cent for facilitating registrations of agricultural land documents.
22 cases registered
According to the Commissioner, 22 cases have been registered in connection with the seven in Jangaon district and 15 in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused manipulated transactions related to 1,080 land documents, diverting Rs 3.90 crore that should have gone to the state treasury.
Further investigation is underway to identify additional beneficiaries and recover the remaining amount.
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