CHENNAI: The State government has found out that 63 officers of the Tamil Nadu registration department were involved in registering 714 documents pertaining to sale of 6,892.02 acres of land, in violation of an order issued by a Supreme Court-appointed panel that had barred registration of these assets. The said registrations were carried out in 38 sub-registrar offices in 11 districts of Tamil Nadu.
Nine officers have been temporarily suspended and the Commercial Taxes and registration department said steps have been taken to initiate action against the remaining 54 officials under Section 17-B. The Tamil Nadu registration department had started the probe after allegations about officials registering 237 sale deeds pertaining to 5,300 acres of land illegally.
Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of Arappor Iyakkam, who collected details about the scam through the Right to Information Act, had said the registration was done with the connivance of top officials of the registration department and other officials.
The Justice (retd) RM Lodha Committee has been asked by the Supreme Court to liquidate lands bought in relation to Pearl Agrotech Corporation Limited (PACL) chit fund scam and pay the money generated through to it to 5.6 crore investors from whom the company is alleged to have collected more than Rs 60,000 crore through illegal collective investment scheme (CIS) over 18 years.