Upa Lokayukta raids uncover alleged ₹200 crore government land scam in Mandya; five officials arrest
Bengaluru: A search conducted by Lokayukta police on the directions of B Veerappa have exposed an alleged scam involving the illegal transfer of government land worth around ₹200 crore in Nagamangala taluk of Mandya district, officials said.
According to The New Indian Express, Nagamangala taluk office allegedly forged, tampered with and fabricated documents to transfer about 320 acres of government gomal land to private individuals under the pretext of allotments through the Bagair Hukum Committee (BHC).
Acting on a tip-off about the racket involved in usurping the gomal land, the Upa Lokayukta issued warrants on Tuesday to conduct searches at seven places, including the residences of the persons involved, the government guest house, a hotel and the taluk office in Nagamangala, the assembly segment represented by Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy.
Following the recovery of incriminating documents, a complaint was filed by the Lokayukta police, based on which Nagamangala police registered a First Information Report (FIR) citing criminal conspiracy, cheating, dishonesty, tampering, fraudulently using forged documents, theft and criminal breach of trust.
Five officials of the land records branch were arrested. They have been identified as second division assistants Satish H V and Gurumurthy, shirastedars Ravishankara and Umesh, and Darakastu village assistant S Yogesh.
“The act of the officials shocks the consciousness of this authority,” said Upa Lokayukta Justice Veerappa.
A statement from the Lokayukta office said that prima facie, it was found that the accused fabricated documents, such as Saguvali Chit, grant ledgers and other land records were created in the Darakastu land records section to illegally transfer gomal land in villages including H N Kavalu, Chikkajataka, Doddajataka and Karadahalli in Nagamangala taluk.
Applications seeking grant of land were found in the car belonging to village assistant Yogesh. When the Lokayukta police, headed by Superintendent of Police Suresh Babu, questioned Yogesh, he revealed that records room staffers Vijay Kumar, Satish and Yashavanth, along with deed writer Chinnaswamy, were diverting government land since 2020.
The seized records disclosed that entries in the land grant ledger had been tampered with to add new names. While BHC rules allow a maximum allotment of 4 acres and 38 guntas per beneficiary, records showed that 9 acres and 27 guntas were allotted to one Prakrul Khan and 11 acres and 23 guntas to Kaleem Mulla. However, these entries are not found in the original records kept in the records room, where the search was conducted.
Further investigation is under way, officials said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
