Two arrested for grabbing Rs 100 cr Odisha govt land

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, May 13:

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch (CB) today arrested two fraudsters for allegedly grabbing government land worth more than Rs 100 crores by fraudulent means.

The accused were identified as Saiprasad Das and Sairam alias Sairaman Das of Manikaghos Bazaar under Purighat police limits in Cuttack district.

Both accused will be forwarded to a designated court of CB in Cuttack today.

According to CB sources, the case was taken up for investigation by EOW on a written complaint by the Tahasildar, Baranga. Acting on the complaint, EOW registered the case on January 16 last year and started investigation into the matter.

Investigation in the case revealed that aforesaid accused persons and their associates fraudulently set up false claims against the state to grab valuable government land bearing plot number- 12 with khata number – 330 measuring 17.55 acres under Bidyadharpur Mouza on the strength of fake and forged patta and rent receipt etc.

The present market value of the measured land is more than Rs 100 crores, a senior CB official said.

“In the due course of investigation, the documents were found forged and valuable land was sought to be taken away on the basis of fraudulent documents. So we arrested two fraudsters slapping charges under sections 420,467,468,471,120(B) of IPC,” said the official.

Investigation is in progress to arrest other person involved in the case, he added.