HYDERABAD: A racket involving use of forged land documents to claim ownership and subsequently sell it was busted in the city with the arrest of five men, all real estate agents.
The five accused, N Sandeep Kumar, K Ajay Kumar, N Chandra Shekar, N Tharun Kumar and B Rama Rao were arrested by SOT sleuths of LB Nagar along with Hayath Nagar police on Tuesday morning following a complaint by a land owner.
Police seized four forged sale deed documents, fake government stamps, non-judicial stamp papers, a car and eight cell phones from their possession.
Among the five accused, Sandeep, Ajay and Rama Rao have a criminal record in similar cases, police said.
It was on October 17 that police received a complaint from A Nagarjuna (45) of Hayathnagar stating that the accused were trying to sell his land in Pasumamula village using forged ownership documents. Nagarjuna had purchased the 150 square yard plot in March from Hemalatha Jyoshva and the sale deed was registered at Pedda Amberpet sub-registrar office. The cops registered a case and began investigation.
According to Rachakonda commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat, the accused would identify vacant plots registered about 20 years ago without photographs of owners and collect certified copy of the sale deed from the sub-registrar office by paying the fee. Subsequently, they would create forged land documents using fake rubber stamps and forged signatures.
The gang would rope in a person to impersonate the land owner, prepare a fake Aadhaar card with his photo and later demand money from the original land owners after creating a dispute.
All the five men were arrested from their homes in the city on Tuesday. The accused along with the seized material were produced before the court for judicial remand.