BENGALURU: Following allegations that police stations have become real estate settlement centres, DG & IGP Neelamani Raju has issued fresh guidelines to police in handling land dispute cases. The guidelines demarcate the role of the police when people approach them with cases related to land, buildings and encroachment of government land. The police has been told to ask these complainants to approach the Revenue Department instead.
In the order, the state police chief stated that a large number of people approached police stations with land disputes. “It is also alleged repeatedly in press as well as by public and on the floor of the legislature that police officers have converted their police stations in state to settle land disputes and are taking huge amounts of illegal gratification for settling the disputes,” the order stated.
Regarding illegal occupation of land, the order stated, “A number of cases come to stations where the complaint would be that in spite of a particular person having Record of Rights in his favour and the khata issued by the local authority, some other person occupy the property. When such complaints are received, a case should be registered under Section 447 (criminal trespass) of the IPC.”