The Halasuru Gate police have registered a case against a First Division Assistant in the Revenue Department for allegedly forging the order copy of senior officials to help a realtor from Bengaluru acquire a 2.36 acre plot that had been acquired by the government a few years ago.
In February 2016, Assistant Commissioner Nagaraja L.C., who was in-charge of the Bengaluru South division, received an appeal from Maruthi Kumar, a 50-year-old businessman from Bengaluru. Maruthi stated that a plot of land in Kothanur, which had been acquired by the government, belonged to him. On conducting an inquiry, Nagaraja found that the land belonged to the government and dismissed the petition. He posted the order on the notice board. Six months later, Nagaraja was transferred to the North division.
First Division Assistant Praveen Kumar, 45, who was in charge of the pending section, allegedly fabricated the order and forged Nagaraja’s signature. “He made it look like the order was in favour of Maruthi Kumar,” said a police officer.
Using the forged order, Maruthi Kumar got the property registered in his name.
The fraud came to light in July 2018 when an RTI activist filed a complaint with the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force, which conducted a probe and sought an explanation from Nagaraja.
Nagaraja verified the relevant documents and found that his signature had been forged. He approached the jurisdictional Halasuru Gate police and filed a complaint.
"After a thorough investigation, we not only managed managed to get back the land belonging to the government, but also identified Praveen Kumar as the official who was involved in these illegal activities,” Nagaraja said.
Based on his complaint, the Halasuru Gate police have registered a case against Praveen Kumar and Maruthi Kumar. They have been charged under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 463, (forgery), 465 (trespass) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.