Probe Amaravati land deals: CID to Income Tax Department

VIJAYAWADA: In a letter to the Income Tax Department, the second one in as many weeks, the AP Crime Investigation Department (CID) probing insider trading in Amaravati land deals, said its investigation revealed that the transactions were done in cash that too above `2 lakh and asked the I-T Department to investigate whether the persons involved in the transactions have violated tax provisions.

Additional Director General of Police (CID) PV Sunil Kumar, in a letter to the Chief Commissioner of I-T, AP, said that during their investigation into the suspected cash transactions in registration of lands in Amaravati in 2018-19, they have found that huge cash transactions took place in purchase of lands.
“During probe, it was found that most of the transactions were done in cash that too above `2 lakh,’’ the CID chief said.

The CID submitted the list of suspicious land transactions involving huge money along with the details of purchasers of land, location and extent of land, sale deed value and mode of payment. Furnishing the list, the CID asked the I-T Department to probe whether the said persons have violated the provisions of I-T Act and asked the department to initiate suitable action against the violators under relevant sections. 

It may be recalled that the CID had earlier written to the I-T Department to probe the land deals in Amaravati as it found more than 750 buyers of lands in Amaravati were white ration card holders and some of them do not even have a PAN card.

Meanwhile, in another case which might be linked to forcible taking over of assigned lands by those in power during the previous TDP government, the CID registered a case against two persons for allegedly usurping assigned lands within the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) limits fraudulently from a Dalit. Officials, however, maintained they are yet to ascertain whether it comes under the Amaravati land pooling scheme and also the persons involved in it are related to any political party.
The complaint was registered by a person identified as Pallepogu Siva Shankar from Kuragallu village in Mangalagiri mandal. In his complaint, Siva Shankar said he inherited 1.68 cents of assigned agriculture land from his grandmother Venkayamma in Kuragallu mandal. On March 7, 2015, he agreed to hand over his agriculture land to CRDA.  

“One of our villagers Maila Parameswara Rao told that my assigned land will be acquiring by the government and I will not be compensated. He also told me that he will purchase the land for some amount for which I agreed to register my land in the names of Tata Basava Shankara Rao of Bapatla and Paladugu Naga Lakshmi of Hyderabad,’’ Siva Shankar said.

However, the registrar office in Mangalagiri refused to register the document and kept it pending, Siva Shankar alleged and said subsequently, he found that the land was registered in the name of some unknown persons. Following the complaint of Siva Shankar, the CID filed a case under Sections 420 (cheating) and others of IPC apart from SC/ST Act.