BENGALURU: Three Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) staffers who allegedly formed a nexus with buyers and sold sites at a much lesser value than the officially fixed price have now been exposed. The BDA Board has suffered a loss to the tune of at least Rs 2 crore due to the fraud.The lid was blown off the scam a week ago when an anonymous caller tipped off top BDA authorities about it.
According to a senior BDA official, four of its sites in Kethmaranahalli (located in the vicinity of West of Chord Road), two parcels of land measuring 30x40 sq ft and two more sites running into dimensions of 40x60 sq ft, were sold to buyers a few months ago by a BDA case worker who colluded with officials in the Site Allotment section.
“The sale deeds (ownership certificates) have also been issued in the names of the beneficiaries. By undercutting the cost of the sites and selling it to the purchasers, they have caused a total loss of over Rs 2 crore. It could even go much higher. This is fraud and cheating committed against BDA by its own employees,” he charged.
As soon as the matter came to light, the BDA Task Force got busy interrogating the officials to get to the bottom of the matter, another official said. “The extent of involvement of the beneficiaries in the fraud is still being probed,” he added. Officials suspect that the BDA employees pocketed lakhs of rupees from the buyers for facilitating the process.
A top BDA official said that the first priority for the Authority was to recover the loss it has suffered. “Informal inquiries and a review of all files pertaining to the sale reveal our officials to be clearly guilty. One case worker and two officials in the Site Allotment section are involved. Two other officials too are suspected of involvement and are being questioned,” he said.
However, a formal enquiry would have to wait till the Lok Sabha polls are concluded. The official said that a formal inquiry would be conducted in house shortly after most of those deputed on election related duty get back. “Our priority is to recover the huge loss caused to BDA by the officials apart from punishing those involved in this scam,” he said. The BDA is contemplating filing a police complaint shortly. The Task Force SP refused to divulge details pertaining to the case to this reporter.