Mysore/Mysuru: In yet another case of cheating through forged or fake documents concerning buying or selling of  sites and other landed properties, the Kuvempunagar Police have booked a case against two persons for selling a residential site to a KPTCL Engineer using forged documents. What is even more interesting here is that MUDA has done Khata to the buyer based on the forged documents and also collected Tax from him for the past five years, before cancelling the registration of the site all of a sudden, citing forgery.

R. Somaraju, a 40-year-old KPTCL Engineer currently serving at Raichur, is the one who has lodged a complaint, accusing M.V. Ganesh Babu, a resident of Khille Mohalla and Ramgopal, a broker of Sharadadevinagar, of cheating him.

Details: M.V. Ganesh Babu, one of the accused in the case, is said to have developed a Layout in a 4-acre plot coming under Bogadi Survey Nos. 268/4 and 268/5, following which the other accused in the case, Ramgopal is said to have told KPTCL Engineer Somaraju to buy site No. 50 in the developed Layout.

Ramgopal also convinced Somaraju that the site has no legal hurdles or litigation and hence there was no problem in buying the site. After being convinced, Somaraju purchased the site for Rs. 7.60 lakh on Jan. 14, 2015 and also paid Rs. 5.5 lakh as development charges (Rs. 13.10 lakh in total), following which the site was registered in the name of Somaraju.

Later, Somaraju, along with the documents (Layout plan, Site Measurement CD etc.,) provided by M.V. Ganesh Babu, applied to MUDA seeking Khata transfer. Subsequently, the MUDA authorities verified the documents, following which the site Khata was done in the name of Somaraju on Aug. 3, 2015. Later, the MUDA authorities also fixed  Revenue Tax for the site and subsequently Somaraju paid the tax for five consecutive years.

But to the shock of his life, Somaraju received a notice from MUDA on Oct. 1, 2022 , which said that M.V. Ganesh Babu had sold the site after forging the measurement record (CD) and as such the site has no legal sanction. Replying to the notice, Somaraju said, he got the site registered after paying the requisite stamp fee to the Government and there was nothing wrong on his part in the site purchase. He also maintained that MUDA had registered the site in his name based on the measurement CD provided by Ganesh Babu and subsequently he regularly paid Revenue and other                                                         statutory taxes.

But despite Somaraju’s convincing reply to the notice, the MUDA authorities cancelled the registration of his purchased site on Jan. 5, 2023, following which Somaraju, left with no other option, lodged a complaint with Kuvempunagar Police, who have booked a case against M.V. Ganesh Babu and Ramgopal on charges of forgery.