Bengaluru: The long arm of the law has caught up with nine persons who staged a sensational fake auction to cheat the Income Tax Department and the late scion of the Mysuru Royal family Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar of 10 acres of prime property in Mysuru.

The High Court termed the crimes as “nothing but a match which was played after the result was decided as it was fixed.”

Seven of the accused, Jagadeep R. Thadani, a resident of Mumbai, C. Subbarayan, B.N. Rajanna, S. Narayanamurthy, R.S. Sethuraman, B.C. Ashwath and M.D. Bheema Naidu approached the High Court against the sentence imposed on them by the CBI Court in 2010. They were sentenced to between three and ten months of imprisonment.

However, for the three other accused, the law came but late. Shivanna, K. Ramanna and Narasimha Murthy died when the case was still before the Court.

The main accused was Shivanna, a Tax Recovery Officer (TRO) at the Income Tax Office in Bengaluru while the other two Subbarayan and Ramanna were also I-T officials. They all got together and schemed against the I-T and Wadiyar, staged an auction and allotted the land to  Jagadeep R. Thadani at a throwaway price.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, a source in the Mysore Palace, said that the said ten acres land which is opposite to the Karanjari Lake where the earlier Air Force Station was which also had a riding track, belonged to Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar.

The dispute as far as the erstwhile royal family was concerned was settled long ago when the fake auction of the said land was cancelled by the I-T Department in the mid-1990s. The auction was just a hoax as fake documents were created. Since it was a criminal case and the accused had gone in appeal, the verdict took its own time,  said the source.

The fake auction was held on Oct.30, 1995. A base price of Rs.2 lakh per acre was set. Four bidders took part. Thadani was declared the highest bidder. He bid for Rs.2.1 lakh per acre. The entire land of 10 acres was to be given away to him for Rs.21 lakh.

Documents created showed that the auction was held at Hotel Krishna Continental. Upholding the sentence imposed by the Trial Court, the High Court in its judgment said, “This is an ideal case to show how conspiracy is hatched, system is cheated, misuse of laws is effected, and white-collared crime is committed, wherein all the accused persons are equally liable for the offences.”

The HC dismissed the petitions filed by the convicted persons saying, “The prosecution has proved the commission of the offences by the accused beyond all reasonable doubt and thus the accused are liable for punishment.”