NH land fraud case: Court irked as CB-CID says DRO untraceable

CHENNAI: Angry at the CB-CID for submitting that it was not able to trace former District Revenue Officer who is allegedly at the heart of a multi-crore land acquisition compensation fraud, the Madras High Court warned the agency that it would transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The investigation was not proceeding satisfactorily, said Justice R Sureshkumar, who was livid after the CB-CID said it could not find out the whereabouts of DRO (land acquisition) Narmada, the official who granted Rs 20.52 crore to the people on the basis of bogus documents claiming that they were the owners of the lands acquired for the Chennai-Bengaluru National Highway project.

When the matter was taken up for hearing, the CB-CID filed a status report regarding the progress in its investigation in the case. However, the judge expressed his displeasure saying that the latest status report contained the same details that the agency placed before the court in an earlier report.

The judge specifically noted that the CB-CID’s submission that the DRO was untraceable was quite strange as the official had appeared before the court thrice during the previous hearings.

The court then warned the investigating agency that if its inquiry was proceeding at snail’s pace, it would transfer the case to the federal agency. After issuing this warning, the judge granted a week time to the CB-CID to conduct the investigation properly and directed it to file a report by February 13.