Revenue Department officials on Thursday recovered a 40-acre land belonging to the government, worth Rs.300 crore, in Karapakkam village on East Coast Road from a gang that was involved in a major land grab racket.
One gang member was arrested while the others fled when they saw officials at the site.
According to Sholinganallur Tahsildar S.Govindarajan, the gang fenced the government land adjacent to the ISKON temple and prepared unauthorised layouts last month. “They advertised the sale of plots at affordable prices and had even constructed a site office on the plot. The culprits collected Rs.3 lakh each from over 15 buyers,” he added.
When the Revenue Department came to know of it, a few officials visited the site posing as prospective buyers.
They found out that four men, including a political party functionary from Vettuvankeni, were involved in the fraud. Around 3 p.m. on Thursday, a team led by Tambaram Revenue Divisional Officer M. Ettiyappan conducted an inspection of the unauthorised layout. They questioned the men who were erecting stones and surveying the plots. The suspects fled from the place after telling the officials that they had come to purchase the plots, Neelankarai police sources said. One of the suspects, Murugesan (26) of Vettuvankeni, was nabbed by the Revenue officials at the site. Later, he was arrested by the Neelankarai police. A hunt is on for his accomplices, Kapali, David, Adimoolam and Venkatesan, the officials said. Revenue Department officials demolished the illegal structures, including an office building, near the unauthorised layout on Friday.
They collected Rs.3 lakh each from buyers
A political party functionary is involved
