BENGALURU: An investigation by Lokayukta police has revealed that Durgashree N, a former assistant commissioner (AC) of Doddaballapura sub-division, manipulated records related to 62 acres 20 guntas of private land in three different villages to facilitate their transfer to private persons. This was revealed in the preliminary investigation report submitted by the Lokayukta police to Upa Lokayukta Justice B Veerappa, who had initiated a suo motu case into the alleged irregularities.
Durgashree is accused of creating fake orders by fraudulently referring to case numbers in Karnataka High Court, Karnataka Appellate Tribunal and Revenue Appellate Courts, which were, in reality, not related to the actual survey numbers of the land in question, by manipulating and fabricating digitised public records.
The transferred land is worth Rs 103.68 crore according to sub-registrar value and has a current market value of Rs 500 crore. Referring to the report, the Upa Lokayukta said it indicated that Durgashree attempted to illegally transfer the khata with connivance of the officials of her office. Thereby, she cheated the public at large by damaging the belief of the general public on transparency in maintenance of public records, the Upa Lokayukta said.
Justice Veerappa said the AC used her digital signature to upload the fake orders for mutation of khata. She lodged a complaint on the same day of her transfer about the fake orders prepared in her name, but kept mum about the uploading of the fake orders through her official login in the Bhoomi software.
Durgashree’s actions defeated the very purpose of the state government digitising the land records, the Upa Lokayukta said. “The conduct of the AC and the other officers of her office are such that it shocks the conscience of this authority (Upa Lokayukta).
Thereby, it is high time for this authority and the law enforcing agency to protect government land. Otherwise, the entire administrative system will collapse as the general public would doubt the transparency of maintenance of digitised public records,” Justice Veerappa noted. Noting that it is a fit case to issue notices to Durgashree and other officers involved, he directed them to appear in person on September 22 along with documents on the issues raised in the order.
