Major fraud with 57,000 sq.ft of land going undetected at many levels raises suspicion
By S.T. Ravikumar
Mysore/Mysuru: Among the various cases that have come to light where bank loans are availed after fabricating documents for the land that is actually owned by Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), this case takes the cake. Rs. 14 crore loan was obtained from a nationalised bank after forging MUDA land documents!
The land in question is an industrial area at Vishweshwaranagar Industrial Suburb Phase 2 and extends up to 57,000 sq.ft and the actual market rate of the land is Rs. 25 crore. An FIR has been registered now at Vidyaranyapuram Police Station after MUDA Commissioner insisted on it. MUDA Special Tahsildar R. Manjunath filed the complaint.
The case came to light after RTI activist B.N. Nagendra drew the attention of MUDA Commissioner G.T. Dinesh Kumar — with sufficient documents — on the case where not only a loan of Rs. 14 crore has been procured from Bank of Baroda, but also the land has shockingly been given to others as a gift deed. Fake documents were created for the criminal act and the FIR has been booked under IPC Sections 420, 465, 468, 471 R/W 34.
Four accused
The FIR has been booked against M. Nanjappa of Mysuru, L. Jagadeesh, Shashi and Lakshmegowda of Hassan. The loan has been obtained from the Hassan branch of the Bank of Baroda for the industrial land that has been marked under site number 36/A. The land is yet to be sanctioned to anyone and is lying vacant.
After the fraud came to light, in his report, Manjunath said that the land was auctioned several times from 2016 until now and no suitable bidders agreed to take the land at MUDA’s price of Rs. 2,600 per sq.ft. As per the price fixed by MUDA, the bidder had to pay Rs. 14,82,00,000 as the land area extended to 57,000 sq.ft.
At this point, when the Encumbrance Certificate (EC) was taken where it was detected that on Sept. 28, 2018, the shareholders of Ms. RJDJ Properties Jagadeesh, Shashi, Nanjappa, and Lakshmegowda had obtained a loan of Rs. 14 crore from Bank of Baroda, Hassan branch. The loan was repaid on Oct. 28, 2018, stated Manjunath in his complaint.
Bank Manager non-cooperative
The bank manager was asked to furnish details of the loan taken, the certificates and documents produced as collateral to avail such a huge sum of money and four letters were sent by the MUDA to the Manager from Jan. 13, 2022 to Oct. 25, 2022. “The Manager of Bank of Baroda, Hassan branch, has not bothered to reply to any of the letters so far,” Manjunath stated in his Police complaint.
Apart from availing a bank loan of Rs. 14 crore, fabricated documents were used to transfer the said parcel of land as a gift deed by accused Nanjappa to one Hemanth Kumar. For this purpose, an unregistered will has been produced. This fraud too has come to light when the RTI activist Nagendra dug into the documents, the Special Tahsildar’s complaint stated.
Criminal intent
The frauds were committed with the sole intention of grabbing MUDA land and for obtaining the bank loan against a property that is worth Rs. 25 crore, documents with digital signatures have been procured online from the Office of the Sub-Registrar. For this too, fake and fabricated documents were created.
The fraud was committed in 2018 and the documents exposing the illegal deal were provided to MUDA on Oct. 11 with an application by the RTI activist Nagendra.
Still, the MUDA neither bothered to file a Police complaint nor investigated the matter to get to the bottom of it. The complaint was lodged only last Tuesday at the insistence of the Commissioner. This lackadaisical attitude has raised suspicion in public circles.
Why were the documents not verified?
Usually, when a loan is granted from a bank that too for a huge amount of Rs. 14 crore, any bank will approach its legal cell for its opinion and also MUDA for the authentication and certification of the land. But in this case, these procedures were violated and the loan was sanctioned arbitrarily.
Even the Sub-Registrar did not do a proper check of the land and its records before issuing online certificates. The said land’s genuineness and legal owners were not identified and it is a clear case of failures at every stage. All these developments show that there might be the involvement of the high and the mighty. Only an impartial investigation will unearth the truth.
This post was published on November 11, 2022 6:43 pm