Even as land price is soaring by the day in city, the real estate mafia has raised its ugly head once again by making attempts to grab prime land space by creating fake documents.

In one such instance, the Udayagiri Police have arrested two persons, including a woman, for cheating in the registration of a 80×50 site in Hanchya-Sathagalli Layout.

Details: S. Madaiah, a resident of 7th Main, Alanahalli Layout in the city, was allotted a 80×50 site by MUDA in Hanchya-Sathagalli ‘B’ zone (site No. 26) in 2008. Madaiah and Hemalatha couple had two children — daughter M. Sushma, who is married and stays in Bengaluru and son M. Pradeep, a software engineer who works in USA.

After Madaiah passed away on Dec. 31, 2014, his wife Hemalatha got the site transferred to her name. Hemalatha visited her site (site No. 26) in Hanchya-Sathagalli a month ago and was walking to board a bus near St. Joesph’s College in Sathagalli, when she was confronted by a man who identified himself as Abdulla alias Sheikh Abdulla of Azeez Sait Nagar.

Abdulla, claiming to have purchased the site (site No. 26), is said to have threatened her not to visit the site again as he was the ‘real’ owner of the site.

Worried over the threat, Hemalatha, along with her site records went to the Sub-Registrar’s (East) Office on Dr. Rajkumar Road, when she discovered that some unscrupulous persons had got registered her site in the name of one V. Kalyan Kumar, resident  of No. 3375, 5th Cross, Gayathrinagar, Bengaluru, after impersonating her two children and forging their signatures.

Hemalatha also learnt that the cheaters had brought one Ramu, House No. 1241, 3rd Cross, 4th Main Road, RT Nagar and Suryakanth, a resident of 9th Cross, Siddarthanagar, as witnesses for the registration. She also suspected the role of Sub-Registrar (East) Office staff as no identity card of the witnesses was secured before going through the ‘registration.’

Later, Hemalatha lodged a complaint with the jurisdictional Udayagiri Police on Jan. 6, 2017, following which a case was booked against 8 persons under Sections 419, 420, 468, 506 and 120 R/W 34.

The Police, who began investigation, arrested Abdulla and Jayammanni alias Sheela of Belavatha in the outskirts of the city. Police are on the lookout for six others who have gone absconding.

Even as such cases are surfacing, people have begun to suspect that MUDA officials and staff too are hand in glove with unscrupulous elements in creating such fake documents.

The modus operandi of fake documents gang is to target innocent site owners and to get the sites ‘registered’ at the Sub-Registrar’s office between 2.30 pm and 3.30 pm by presenting fake witnesses when there are not much people around. Soon after registration process is completed, the gang members secure bank loans and sell off the site at a higher price.

There are reports of such cheating cases from Rajivnagar, Hinkal, Lalithadripura, Bogadi, Metagalli, Lingambudhipalya, Belvatha, Alanahalli and other localities on the outskirts of the city. With the land mafia indulging in such fraudulent means, it is the innocent site-buyers who are put to a lot of hardship.