BENGALURU: Owners have to think twice about keeping their sites vacant, and assume they are safe. A father and son in Jnanabharathi police station limits in Bengaluru have created, concocted and forged fake documents for eight vacant sites, and got them registered at a Sub-Registrar’s office. They also went ahead and mortgaged the sites and took loans using bogus records.
One of the eight cases came to light when a site owner, Raghavendra Rajarao, a 51-year-old computer professional from HMT Layout, filed a complaint with Jnanabharathi police station on March 11, alleging that his site had been mortgaged with State Bank of India (SBI) by Shivanna (37), son of Veerabhadrappa (87), residing at Mallathahalli.
Rao stated that he had bought site No.47 at Mallathahalli in Bengaluru North three decades ago, and pays tax regularly to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). He used to visit the site often but was surprised to see a possession notice put up on the site by SBI on his last visit on February 22.
Suspecting something fishy, he checked with SBI and learnt that the site had been registered with fabricated documents, and a loan had been taken on it. The encumbrance certificate revealed that one Achukuttan PA had bought the site from Shivanna, who got it from his father Veerabhadrappa.
Rao alleged that the Sub-Registrar of Peenya and BBMP officials were also part of this conspiracy. Surprisingly, even bank officials delayed taking action on this illegal transaction. Similar offences were committed by Shivanna in the surrounding areas to knock off sites, Rao alleged.
Meanwhile, both father and son moved court, seeking anticipatory bail on the ground that they were innocent. Countering it, the investigating officer filed a report, stating that eight criminal cases had been registered against Shivanna and his father from 2012 onwards on similar charges. However, counsel for the accused submitted that in all the cases, the accused was granted bail but had not placed documents in support of his claim before the court.
Judge Shivakumara B, 38th Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, observed that the allegations against the accused are serious since they have cheated the complainant by colluding with other accused. Investigation is still at the nascent stage and custodial interrogation of the accused looks necessary, the judge said refusing to grant anticipatory bail to both father and son.