How a gang forged land documents, found landlord lookalikes and cheated people of lakhs

Hyderabad: A fake land document racket was busted here on 11 April by the special operations team (SOT), Malkajgiri zone, and nine persons were arrested. Fake sale deeds, cash Rs. 10.4 lakh, forged government stamps/seals, and other documents – all worth Rs. 16 lakh – were seized from the gang. The market value of the seized fake sale deeds is about Rs. 20 crore.

The nine persons who were arrested have been identified as Bomma Rama Rao (60), Boddu Srinivas (48), Gaddam Shyam Rao (80), Sudhagani Kumara Swamy (48), Ganta Rajashekhar (59), Merugu Janaiah (42), Aavula Balraj (53), Vallapu Krishna (41), and Nousu Sridhar (42).

Two others, Dayakar and Hafeez, are absconding.

According to the police, the gang would identify vacant lands that had remained unclaimed for long. They collected certified copies of the vacant land and prepared fake sale deeds. The gang would then find a person who was close to the original owner's sage and create fake Aadhar cards by making him impersonate the landowner. The gang prepared fake sales agreement and made illegal registrations. They used the forged deeds to create land disputes between the parties and demand money.

Forgeries and impersonations

Kumara Swamy of Cherlapally is a real estate broker. He came to know that a plot of land located at the Cherlapally gram panchayat in Uppal was vacant and the owner had not claimed it for a long time. He got a certified copy of the sale deed of the land; Bomma Rama Rao and Dayakar prepared a fake sale deed for the land using fake rubber stamps and seals with forged signatures.

As per their plan, Kumara Swamy sent photocopies of the land documents to Boddu Srinivas, another real estate broker, and instructed him to find someone to impersonate the landlord and promised to give him 50% of the share. Srinivas started searching for an old man who could pass off as the landlord and finally found Gaddam Shyam Rao (75) and asked him to impersonate Gurajada Kondal Rao and get the land registered. Srinivas prepared a fake Aadhar card in the name of Gurajada Kondal Rao but with Gaddam Shyam Rao's photo and also prepared another Aadhar card in the name of Gurajada Srinivas Rao with his own photograph that showed him as Kondal Rao's son.

Then Rajashekar, a real estate broker, introduced a buyer to Srinivas. The latter introduced himself as the landlord Kondal Rao's son and showed him the fake Aadhar card. A deal was made for Rs. 47.99 crore and the gang collected an advance of Rs. 8 lakh with a condition to pay the remaining amount at the time of registration.

The police found documents for lands located in Banjara Hills, Kondapur, Madhapur Ayyapa Society, R.C Puram, Saleem Nagar Malakpet, and Thurkayamjal. They are trying to verify if they are original documents.