Karimnagar land grabbing case: More skeletons to tumble out of closet?

Documents say Revenue dept. had assigned land to a man who could not be traced

Did the Revenue and Sub-Registrar officials of Karimnagar district play any role in grabbing three acres of land assigned to an ex-serviceman at Nagunoor on the outskirts of the town?

The question assumes importance as investigators stumbled upon documents suggesting that Revenue department has assigned one acre and 20 guntas of the same land to one Lakshminarayana under ‘political sufferers’ quota. Interestingly, the Karimnagar police probing this case for the last two months could not trace Lakshminarayana so far.

Fictitious person?

What is more surprising is the investigators almost concluding that Lakshminarayana is a fictitious person. It is baffling that revenue authorities issued a letter assigning land to a person who never existed, says a police officer unwilling to be named.

Strange case

This strange case of land grabbing came to light a few weeks ago. Ex-serviceman Vinod Kumar approached the police stating that his land of three acres under survey no. 669 at Nagunoor on the town’s northern fringes was illegally occupied by some persons. This land was allotted to him by the government a few years ago.

Mr. Kumar, who is temporarily living in Hyderabad, during a recent visit to Karimnagar learnt that some persons took possession of one acre and 20 guntas of his land. Following his complaint, an FIR was issued by Karimnagar rural police. Inquiries revealed that the revenue authorities issued letters allotting this piece of land to one Lakshminarayana under ‘political sufferers’ quota as Vinod Kumar was not in possession of the land.

Police wanted to record the statement of the person to whom land was allotted. Interestingly, that Lakshminarayana could not be traced so far. Moreover, he had registered the one acre and 20 guntas of land in the names of three persons — B. Sudhakar, A. Malla Reddy and P. Neelima Reddy — who now say they have no clue on the whereabouts of Lakshminarayana.

In the registration documents, Lakshminarayana mentioned that he was a resident of Vavilalapally. When police knocked the doors of the house number mentioned in the documents, the house owner turned out to be someone else. “We are now verifying how a person who never lived, got land allotment from government and managed even to register the land,” the investigators said.

Organised gangs

This and another recent case of illegal occupation of government land in Bommakal village are compelling police to believe that some organised gangs are involved such crimes. In the Bommakal case, police already arrested an ex-sarpanch, whose wife is a ZPTC member. The investigators believe more skeletons are likely to tumble out of the land grabbing cupboards.