‘Mantri Developers has forged papers'

July 10, 2010 04:39 pm | Updated July 11, 2016 11:54 pm IST

Leader of the Opposition in Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Council M. Nagaraj on Friday accused Mantri Developers Pvt. Ltd. of forging the khata (title deed) and khata extract of one of its projects in the city.

Demanding a CBI probe, he alleged that the documents for Mantri Tranquil Apartments on Kanakapura Road in Bangalore South taluk, Uttarahalli hobli, Gubbalalu village, had been forged. The apartment complex, with 1,035 flats, had come up on 19 acres and 37 guntas of land, coming under survey numbers 7, 9 and 13, he told presspersons on Friday.

“As per the panchayat records, the land has been registered by Mantri Developers under the names of D.V. Mallikarjun, J.M. Subramanya and G. Srinivas Rangan. The khata number is 1208/ 7,9,13. However, after the BBMP was formed, the developers should have applied for a fresh khata,” he claimed.

He alleged that the developers had created a fake khata certificate and khata extract documents (dated July 13, 2007). The forged khata number is 1206/ 7,9,13.

‘Documents faked'

According to the declaration of the Assistant Revenue Officer, Uttarahalli Subdivision, property belonging to Chakrapani Venkatesh and Lakshmi Madhav Rao has been registered under khata number 1206. The developers had taken this khata number and added the relevant survey numbers to create fake documents,” he charged.

Mr. Nagaraj said that in response to a Right to Information Act application, the Revenue officials stated that the khata extract (bearing challan number 150230) had not been issued by the Uttarahalli Subdivision office. They also confirmed that both the khata certificate and extract were fake.

Part of big scam?

Hinting that this was part of a big scam, he claimed that there were several other cases where big developers had created fake documents for land in the erstwhile seven CMCs, one TMC and 110 villages and cheated hundreds of people.

“Of the 1,035 flats in Mantri Tanquil, over 800 have already been registered. What will be the fate of people who have taken bank loans to buy their dwellings based on these fake documents? The question is will their documents will be regularised,” Mr. Nagaraj asked.

BDA role

He said that even after the BBMP was formed on January 16, 2007, the Bangalore Development Authority continues to issue Occupancy Certificates (OC) to properties in the newly added areas without checking the veracity of documents. “The civic authority is losing crores of rupees in revenue. This is being done in the interests of the big developers,” he charged.

Mantri's denial

Kiran Kumar, associate vice-president, Mantri Developers, rubbished the allegations. He said that his company was a reputed one which had completed 20 projects.

“The Government would not have kept quiet for so long if the documents were fake. Also, we have won the Best Builder Award for the project in question. There is no substance in the allegations levelled by Mr. Nagaraj,” he pointed out.

“We can assure that there have been no irregularities from our end and none of the customers will be affected.”

Mayor's take

Mayor S.K. Nataraj told presspersons later that he would direct officials to look into Mr. Nagaraj's allegation. “If it is found to be true, we will initiate stringent action against the developers and the officials responsible. The BBMP will levy a penalty and initiate legal action,” he said.

The Mayor also said that he had discussed the OC issue with Chief Minister and the city in-charge Ministers.

“I have apprised them of BBMP's revenue loss. They have directed the Urban Development Department to issue a circular giving the BBMP powers to issue OC again. Even if the BDA has issued OC, the BBMP has powers to inspect and levy fine in case of deviations,” he added.

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