Village Administrative Officer thwarts deal to transfer inherited property through gift deeds

By S.T. Ravikumar

Mysore/Mysuru: A land mafia is active in Mysuru, illegally amassing crores of rupees by transferring and registering properties belonging to unsuspecting owners in the names of innocent individuals (by paying them a few thousand rupees) and then selling them off to gullible buyers.

In a recently unearthed case, the mafia exploited the name of a genuine landowner and, through another woman with a deceptively similar name, managed to execute gift deeds for land valued in crores. However, when an application for Khata registration was submitted to the Taluk Office based on this fraudulent gift deed, the file reached a vigilant Village Administrative Officer. His alertness and sense of duty exposed the fraud, ultimately ensuring that the high-value property remained with its rightful owner.

Police complaint lodged

Following the detection of the fraud, H.J. Nagaraj, Senior Sub-Registrar at the Mysuru East Sub-Registrar’s Office, lodged a complaint at the Mysuru South (Rural) Police Station.

Based on his complaint, a case has been registered under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) – Sections 319(2), 318(4), 336(2), 336(3), 340 read with 3(5). The Sections deal with cheating by personation, offence of cheating, forgery to cheat, forged documents or electronic records and common intention.

The accused are Umera Banu (47), a resident of Nehru Nagar in Sathagalli near VTU College, Mysuru, who claimed as Umera Khanum and executed the gift deed, (her name in the FIR figures as Umera Khanum), Salma Sultan (24), also from Nehru Nagar, listed as Umera Khanum’s daughter in the Sub-Registrar’s Office records and the one in whose name the gift deed was executed, and witnesses Syed Irfan, Akram and Johar Alam, all from Ghousianagar.

Details of the case

Forty-three-year-old Umera Khanum, wife of Farveez Khan and a resident of Mahadevapura Main Road in Gayathripuram, Mysuru, owns 1 acre and 7 guntas of land in Survey No. 210/1 and 1 acre and 5 guntas in Survey No. 210/4 of Rammanahalli village. She inherited these lands from her father.

On June 5, (Umera Banu) a resident of Nehru Nagar, claiming and identifying herself as Umera Khanum, arrived at the Mysuru East Sub-Registrar’s Office along with Salma Sultan, claiming she was her daughter.

She registered a gift deed, transferring 1 acre and 7 guntas of land in Survey No. 210/1 in favour of Salma Sultan. Later, on June 9, she returned to the office and executed another gift deed, this time transferring the 1 acre and 5 guntas of land in Survey No. 210/4 to Salma Sultan.

Application Khata transfer, inspection

Based on the gift deeds, intermediaries submitted an application at the Mysuru Tahsildar’s Office to transfer the Khata in the name of Salma Sultan. As per procedure, the file was forwarded by the Revenue Inspector to Azeem Khan, the Village Administrative Officer of Rammanahalli, for inspection.

Upon reviewing the file, Azeem Khan noticed that Aadhaar seeding had not been done for the property. Realising this, he decided to first verify and complete Aadhaar seeding by meeting the landowners. With this intention, he visited the Nehru Nagar address mentioned in the registered documents.

Not Umera Khanum, but Umera Banu

When Azeem Khan arrived there, he found only a small hut at the given address. Doubting whether a woman owning property worth crores of rupees would actually be living in such a hut, he became suspicious.

Without revealing his identity as a Village Administrative Officer or the purpose of his visit, he told the woman that he had come for Aadhaar verification. When he asked her name, she said it was ‘Umera Banu’.

When asked about her husband’s name, she replied, ‘Akram’. This confirmed to Azeem Khan that she was not the original landowner, Umera Khanum. Without saying anything further, he quietly left the place.

Search for Salma Sultan

Later, when Azeem Khan went in search of the address of Salma Sultan — who was claimed to be the daughter of the woman who executed the gift deed — he found that she too lived in a hut.

When he told her it was for Aadhaar verification and asked her mother’s name, she replied ‘Hatheejah.’ This confirmed that she was not even the daughter of Umera Banu or Umera Khanum, for that matter.

Realising that the mafia had used these innocent women to fraudulently seize the prime land, Azeem Khan explained the matter to Salma Sultan.

He warned her that a conspiracy had been hatched to transfer land worth crores of rupees in her name and advised her to go to the Sub-Registrar’s Office and cancel the registration. He cautioned that if she failed to do so, she could end up in jail.

Tracing the rightful owners

Later, noting that fake documents had been submitted in the file, Azeem Khan wrote a report stating that the Khata registration could not be processed and forwarded it to the Revenue Inspector.

However, the question of who the actual landowner was continued to trouble Azeem Khan, and he was determined to trace the rightful owner.

Eventually, Azeem Khan was able to locate the real landowner, Umera Khanum, from Gayathripuram. Upon collecting and verifying the original property documents related to the land, it was confirmed that the land rightfully belonged to her and had been inherited from her father.

Moreover, all the original documents related to the property were in her possession. Without delay, Azeem Khan brought her to the Mysuru East Sub-Registrar’s Office and helped her file a complaint with Senior Sub-Registrar H.J. Nagaraju. After verifying all the documents, Nagaraju too filed a complaint with the Mysuru South Police Station.

Had Village Administrative Officer Azeem Khan not acted with a sense of duty — by deciding to ensure Aadhaar seeding for the property and personally going to Nehru Nagar in search of Umera Khanum — or had he not grown suspicious upon seeing the woman living in a hut and conducted his own informal investigation, the rightful owner, Umera Khanum, would have lost her property worth crores of rupees to others.

Aadhaar card was forged to change the name

When Umera Khanum filed a complaint stating that another woman had used her Aadhaar card and PAN card to execute gift deeds transferring her land to the woman’s daughter, an investigation revealed that an Aadhaar card in the name of ‘Umera Banu’ had been forged by altering the name                              ‘Banu’ to ‘Khanum.’

This fraud came to light thanks to the diligence of Rammanahalli Village Administrative Officer Azeem Khan. Had he processed the Khata transfer, the property would have ended up in the hands of others. Later, if the original landowner had approached the Court, even we officials would have faced trouble.

I have filed a Police complaint and initiated a criminal case in this regard. As for the current land registration, it must be cancelled either by the very people who registered it or through a Court directive. Until then, the registration technically remains in effect. We will keep a close watch on the matter.

— H.J. Nagaraj, Senior Sub-Registrar (Mysuru East)

Aadhaar seeding will prevent fraud

If Aadhaar seeding is not done for land, it becomes possible to illegally transfer ownership of properties. When a property is Aadhaar-seeded, an OTP is sent to registered mobile number of property owner at the time of registration. Only upon entering that OTP does the registration process get completed. In this fraud case, property had not been Aadhaar-seeded.

— Mahesh, Tahsildar, Mysuru Taluk

Rightful owner has the land now

Explaining how the fraud was uncovered, Rammanahalli Village Administrative Officer Azeem Khan said he initially believed the documents were genuine. It was only during a closer examination and a field visit for land inspection that discrepancies emerged, ultimately exposing the fraud.

“There is no achievement of mine in this. I simply did my duty, that’s all. But the fact that the rightful owner was able to reclaim her property worth crores has given me immense satisfaction,” he said.