JANGAON: Jangaon police on Friday arrested 15 members of a gang involved in a Rs 3.90 crore scam linked to Dharani and Bhu Bharati in Jangaon and Yadadri districts.
Nine other accused in the case are currently absconding. The fraudulent transactions reportedly caused significant losses to government revenue.
The police seized Rs 63.19 lakh in cash, Rs 1 lakh deposited in bank accounts, property documents worth about Rs 1 crore, one car, two laptops, five desktop computers, and 17 mobile phones.
Disclosing the details to the media, Warangal Commissioner of Police (CP) Sunpreet Singh said that the main accused, Pasunuri Basava Raju and Jella Pandu, ran an online service center at Yadagirigutta in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district.
Another accused Ganesh Kumar collected registration fees from farmers through Meeseva operators and Online centers by promising to pay challans through NRI accounts. The collected money was distributed as commissions to service operators and middlemen, while the remaining amount was transferred to the prime accused.
During the payment of government fees related to registration documents, technical issues would occasionally arise. Taking advantage of this, the accused repeatedly attempted to manipulate loopholes in the Dharani and Bhu Bharati websites for their benefit.
The accused, Basava Raju, allegedly edited the application option on the websites to reduce challan amounts, edited the challans using mobile applications, and sent manipulated receipts to the farmers. The accused also altered official payment receipts and paid reduced amounts to the government. They submitted forged challans at local MRO and registration offices through middlemen, thereby causing revenue loss to the government.
The main accused, Basava Raju and Jella Pandu, developed a habit of earning easy money and started registering Dharani and Bhu Bharati documents themselves through the website, which should have been processed through Mee-Seva centres, online service providers, or middlemen in Jangaon and Yadadri districts. In return, they paid commission ranging from 10 percent to 30 percent to others involved.
The accused committed fraud in Dharani and Bhu Bharati financial transactions related to 1,080 registration documents across Jangaon and Yadadri districts. A total of 22 cases have been registered in both districts - seven in Jangaon and 15 cases in Yadadri, said Sunpreet Singh.
The arrested persons were: Basava Raju (32), Jella Pandu (46), Maheshwaram Ganesh Kumar (39), a resident of Yadadri, Eegajulapati Srinath (35), Yenagandhula Venkatesh (35), Konduri Sravan (35), a resident of Jangaon, and Kolipaka Sathish Kumar (36), a resident of Kofakandla Mandal in Jangaon district, Tadoori Ranjith Kumar (39), a resident of Narmetta mandal in Jangaon district, Dumpala Kishan Reddy (29), a resident of Atmakur mandal of Yadadri district, Dasarath Meghavath (28), a resident of Turkapally in Yadadri district, Nara Bhanu Prasad (30), a resident of Yadagirigutta, Gopagani Srinath (32), a resident of Yadadri district, Oggu Karnakar (42), a resident of Yadadri district, Kamalla Shiva Kumar (33) a resident of Amangal village in Nalgonda district, and Aleti Nagaraju (32) from the Yadadri.