Alarmed over a scam worth over Rs 6 crore indulged in by an office-bearer of the Tiruchirappalli Cooperative House Construction Societies Ltd by conveying Society lands at throwaway prices, the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, to conduct a thorough audit of the sale transactions entered into by all the Societies to find if any other Society had indulged in such a scam.

Imposing a cost of Rs 10 lakh on the person who staked a claim on the property, usurped in collusion with the office-bearer, Justice N Anand Venkatesh said: “If cases of this nature are let off without stringent action, the cooperative movement in the State will suffer and ultimately end in closure of Societies, already on brink of a precipice.”

As per the case, in 2015, the then secretary of the Society virtually used civil proceedings as a ruse to enter into a private negotiation with petitioner RV Shanmuganandam and alienated 7,800 square feet belonging to the Society for a pittance. While the sale deed was executed for consideration of Rs 62.55 lakh at the rate of Rs 802 per sqft, the petitioner, within a span of 21 days, sold the property in favour of one Dr Kadhiravan and his wife for a total sale consideration of Rs 2.34 crore as per the guideline value.

However, Justice Venkatesh on pointing out that obviously the market value was much more and it is not known how much money went into the hands of the petitioner, said: “This clearly demonstrates that the property was conveyed to the petitioner for a pittance by misusing the compromise decree and there cannot be a better case to establish a criminal conspiracy between the petitioner and the secretary of the Society.”

Also, on finding that the secretary had similarly sold another 10,048 sqft to another person, the court directed the Society to set aside both the compromise decree passed. It also directed the IO to expedite the probe and file a final report against all the accused within three months.

The court also directed the Registrar, Cooperative Societies to ensure that not an inch of property belonging to any Society in State is permitted to be dealt with without the concurrence of the Registrar and the Pricing Committee appointed by the government.