SDA planning member held for issuing 'fake' building plans

SAMBALPUR: Police on Thursday arrested the planning member of Sambalpur Development Authority (SDA), Bandita Mohapatra, for her alleged involvement in issuing fake approval letters of building plans to applicants.

The arrest was made after one Debraj Sahu lodged a case at Ainthapali police on September 1 regarding a fake SDA approval certificate issued for the plan of his building on a land at Kaensir area.

As per the report, Debraj applied for approval of the plan to construct a building with the help of an architect, Manas Chaini, in April. He met SDA planning member Bandita Mohapatra, who told him to contact a dealing assistant, Laxmi Narayan Samal.

Subsequently, the dealing assistant and the architect gave a slip of around Rs 2.6 lakh to Debraj and asked him to pay the amount in cash. However, after the payment when Debraj asked for the money receipt, they did not provide it, and instead gave him the approval letter for his building plan. But later, the complainant came to know that it was fake, police said. "During investigation, it came to fore that though the offline applications and approvals for building plans have already been stopped since 2021, the dealing assistant and the architect in connivance with the planning member accepted the application on a backdate and issued a forged approval," the police added.

SDPO P K Sahu said, "The architect will also be arrested in this connection," he said.