BERHAMPUR: Berhampur Town police on Tuesday arrested three more persons including two women from Mumbai on charges of purchasing land worth over Rs 1.5 crore even after knowing that the seller had forged the owner’s identity. Two other accused had been arrested earlier in January this year.
Though the fraud took place last year, it came to light two months back after one Kamalendu Patro of Gandhinagar area filed a police complaint. Kamalendu in his complaint stated that his late father Laxmikanta Patra had purchased 0.68 acre land in Nilakanthanagar Mouza from one WV Ramarao in 1990.
During first week of January, Kamalendu approached a bank for loan by mortgaging the land and submitted the legal heir certificate and other relevant documents. However, during verification, bank officials found that the record of rights (ROR) of the land was in the name of Jayanti Jena.
Shocked, Kamalendu approached the Berhampur Sub-Registrar Office which verified that the land was sold by Ramarao to Jayanti in July 2021. Unconvinced why Ramarao would resell the land 31 years later, Kamalendu met the former’s relatives. To his surprise, he found that Ramarao had passed away in 1994. The land was sold by some miscreant by forging Ramarao’s identity.
On January 12, Kamalendu then lodged an FIR with all documents. Police registered a case and on subsequent probe arrested a land broker Purnachandra Biswal on January 25. Biswal’s arrest revealed that one Gopinath Panigrahi had forged Ramarao’s Aadhaar card and registered the land in Jayanti’s name for Rs 1.5 crore with two others Bharati Patra and N Chiranjibi Rao as witnesses. Gopinath was arrested the following day. But Jayanti, Bharati and Chiranjibi were absconding.
Last week, police got tip-off that the accused were staying in Thane. With help from their counterparts there, they tracked down the trio on the day. Town police IIC Suresh Tripathy said the accused were produced in JMFC court in Thane and brought on remand.
They were produced in SDJM court in Berhampur. So far, five persons have been arrested in the case and others involved will be nabbed soon, he said.