CHENNAI: As many as 11 people, including a district revenue officer (DRO), Tahsildar, land surveyor and Deputy Tahsildar, have been booked in connection with a land scam in which Rs 21.08 crore was paid to acquire 16.64 acres of open space reservation (OSR) land for expanding the SIPCOT industrial park in Sriperumbudur.
The Kancheepuram District Crime Branch recently registered the FIR based on a complaint lodged by SIPCOT’s Special Tahsildar Narayanan. The government officials were charged with allegedly colluding with land promoters in transferring government land to private entities.
The scam came to light following an inquiry ordered when four people approached the government in May 2021, seeking interest on the Rs 21.08 crore they received after their claim of handing over the land for SIPCOT expansion was accepted by the State. They alleged that the land parcels were acquired in 2012, but compensation was paid only in 2020.
According to a revenue official, despite the acquisition of the land parcels in Vallam - Vadagal village being completed by 2013, the gift deed registered in 1991 was cancelled by the land promoter company with fake documents in 2020. “Then the properties were transferred to a private person fraudulently,” the official said.
According to the Special Tahsildar’s complaint, in 1991 the land promoter gifted about 16.64 acres of OSR land in Vallam and Vadagal villages to the Sriperumbudur Block Development Office. The OSR land was earmarked for a park, road, water tank and other public utilities.
In 2009, the State notified the expansion of Sriperumbudur SIPCOT by setting up the Vallam - Vadagal Industrial Park. As part of the project, 16.64 acres of OSR land parcels were acquired and transferred to SIPCOT. The land acquisition was completed in 2013.
However, in 2020, a top official from the land promoter company cancelled the gift deed at the Pallipattu sub-register office allegedly by producing fake documents. The properties were then sold to four other people, the complaint said.
A few months later, the four people sought compensation claiming their properties in Vallam village were acquired for the SIPCOT expansion. On the recommendation of officials, the government paid Rs 21.08 crore. In May last year, the landowners again approached the government seeking interest on the Rs 21.08 crore alleging delay.
The 11 people have been charged under the provisions of IPC for 120 B ( criminal conspiracy) 465 (forgery), 420 (cheating), 468 (Forgery), 471 (use of forged document) and 34 (Several persons in furtherance of common intention).“We have sought more documents from the revenue department for further inquiry,” said a police official.
CB-CID is already investigating two scams land scams in Sriperumbudur. In the first, 5.1 acres of OSR land at Nemili near Sriperumbudur was acquired for Chennai - Bengaluru Expressway and the government said that compensation of Rs 300 crore is suspected to have been paid. In the second, NHAI had released Rs 126 crore for acquiring land at Beemathangal in Sriperumbudur for Chennai - Bengaluru six-lane project but, land turned out to be government property.