Hyderabad: A forest department investigation has uncovered a massive fraud involving creation of fake Recognition of Forest Rights (RoFR) pattas used to secure crop loans and Rythu Bandhu benefits in four districts — Mulugu, Bhupalpally, Warangal, and Mahabubabad — in the state.
The investigation, led by Mulugu district forest officer Rahul Jadhav, revealed that at least 400 such pattas were fraudulently issued to both tribals and non-tribals.A printing press involved in creating fake pattadar passbooks, with forged digital signatures of district collectors and forest officials, has also been identified. Forest officials have filed a police complaint, detailing their findings. Three of the suspects have also been handed over to the police.
Speaking to TOI, Rahul Jadhav said, "Based on the information we gathered, we discovered that fake RoFR pattas were being made to obtain loans and govt benefits. The prime suspect, Chandavath Bhadru, a native of Narsampet, approached villagers, promising to get them RoFR pattas in exchange for a share of the loans. He collected photos, Aadhaar cards and other demographic details from the villagers."
Digital signs scanned
After collecting the necessary details, Bhadru forwarded them to Thatipamula Raju, who owns a printing shop in Warangal. Raju used photo editing softwares to create fabricated RoFR documents, using pre-designed formats that closely resembled the originals, especially those issued in 2022-2023. Each fake pattadar passbook required a QR code, which was generated by another suspect, Bhukya Venkanna, using an online QR code generation app. The second page of the RoFR title deed required the signatures of three officials: the district forest officer, ITDA project officer, and the district collector. The suspects scanned digital signatures from original documents and used them on fake pattas.
Special paper used
"The third page of the title deed includes maps and reserve forest compartment details, which were copied from previously approved title deeds. The suspects used special paper similar to that used in original documents, and laminated the pattas to make them look genuine," the forest official said. One of the final touches involved the 3D hologram, which is used on govt documents like birth certificates and revenue passbooks. Banoth Hari Krishna Naik, another suspect, created and applied these holograms on the fake RoFR pattas. The fifth suspect, Daravath Kishan from Narsampet, prepared fake letters in the name of the forest range officer and sent them to banks, certifying the documents as genuine to facilitate loan processing.
Info sought from banks
During the investigation, officials found 400-500 files on the prime suspect's computer, which indicated that most of the forged documents were already created or were in the process of being prepared. Forest officials have sought information from banks regarding loans issued using these fake RoFR pattas. Interestingly, it was discovered that not only Scheduled Tribes (STs) but also individuals from BC, OC, and minority communities received fake RoFR pattas, despite the fact that only STs are eligible under the original scheme.