Man held for land fraud in Odisha capital

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Aug 18:

The Commissionerate Police today arrested Gangadhar Sahu (74), the managing trustee of Margdarshan Foundation and owner of Institute of Management in Odisha capital on the charge of land fraud to the tune of Rs 32 lakh.

As told by the investigating officer (IO) of Saheed Nagar police station to OST, Lt. Ganesh Prasad Rout of Saheed Nagar area had lodged a complaint on July 10 this year against the accused, who also hails from the Saheed Nagar area, alleging that he had grabbed a  piece of land in Lingaraj Temple area worth Rs 32.93 lakh by fraudulent means and sold the land to him for construction of apartments.

However, the accused later failed to provide the patta and the deposit money to Rout.

On the above report, a case number (365/15) was registered and investigation was launched into the matter.

Acting on the complaint, police seized the land documents relating to the plot numbers- 245, 246, 247 having khata  number- 363 under Nuagaon Mouza of Bhubaneswar Tehsil.

In course of investigation, it was revealed that these lands belong to the sevayats of Lingaraj  temple and cannot be commercially transacted.

“Today we arrested Gangadhar and forwarded him to the court,” the IO said, adding that the police have slapped charges under sections 341, 323, 394, 420, 506 and 34 of the IPC against the accused.