Lokayukta police officials searched the Devanahalli tahsildar’s office on Friday and examined land records after registering a suo motu case over allegations that tahsildars who held charge of Devanahalli taluk post-2005 had forged documents and sold off government land to private individuals.
The alleged irregularities came to light during random checks by the Commissioner of Survey Settlement and Land Records (SSLR) a couple of months ago.
FIR filedThe scam may have caused a loss of several hundreds of crores to the State exchequer, sources say.
Lokayukta filed a First Information Report (FIR) on Friday.
A senior Lokayukta police official said that they are still grappling with the magnitude of the scam.
As an initial step, they had checked land records pertaining to more than 1,000 acres of government land in Devanahalli, Chikkanahalli, Hosahalli, Hegganahalli and surrounding villages.
The FIR does not contain any names but as the scam was spread over a period of time, tahsildars during that period would be held responsible, said a senior Lokayukta official.