BHUBANESWAR: Bhubaneswar police on Wednesday arrested three persons, including a data entry operator at a sub-registrar’s office, for allegedly conspiring to illegally reclaim a property that had been auctioned by a bank and purchased by a doctor.
The accused have been identified as the property’s original owner, Jaminikanta Rout, his associate Amit Kumar Sahoo and data entry operator Prayag Gouda. According to the complaint, Dr Simanta Das had purchased a building constructed on the plot through an auction conducted by Union Bank of India’s Asset Recovery Branch in 2023 for `52 lakh.
The bank had handed over the registered sale deed and physical possession of the property to Das under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, in the presence of police. However, Rout, who had defaulted on a bank loan of Rs 22 lakh, allegedly hatched a conspiracy to reclaim the property. He impersonated Das, the lawful owner, by forging his Aadhaar and PAN cards and executed a fraudulent sale deed on November 14, 2025, in favour of his associate Sahoo. The duo subsequently sold the same property to one Sasmita Jena.
Investigations revealed that Gouda actively facilitated the fraud by uploading fake Aadhaar details into the registration system and manipulating OTP generation to enable the impersonation.
On September 26 this year, the accused allegedly broke open the lock of the complainant’s house and forcibly occupied it. Following a complaint by Das, police launched an investigation and seized relevant bank auction and registration documents. Investigators also found that the videography footage of the execution of the sale deed at the sub-registrar’s office was unavailable.
“Prima facie, it appears to be a well-planned conspiracy involving impersonation, forgery and fraudulent registration, with the involvement of sub-registrar’s office staff,” said an officer of Badagada police station.
