Landowners seek CB-CID probe into encroachment; officials' reply sought

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday directed the police and revenue officials to respond to a plea seeking the transfer of the case related to the encroachment of land in Sholinganallur worth about Rs 20 crores to the CB-CID for further investigation.

Hearing a petition filed by Rajeev Barma and Sanjeev Barma, Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan issued notice to the Tambaram police Commissioner, Adyar and Neelankarai sub-registrars, and Kancheepuram joint sub-registrar (II), and adjourned the hearing to June 5.

The petitioners said they had bought the land in Uthandi in 1981. But when they checked the encumbrance certificate, they came to know that one M Kanniappan had illegally registered the land in his son’s name through forged documents and also took a loan of about Rs 10 crore from different banks using the land as bond.

According to them, though the fraud was done with the involvement of several bank employees, the police did not investigate on those lines nor did they questioned the sub-registrar who was instrumental in registering the fabricated document. The police have arrested only one of the accused so far, they alleged.

“This case is not an ordinary land grabbing complaint like other cases, as the accused conspired with each other to also destroy the public documents in the registration offices and have then fabricated documents and have siphoned off large amounts of public money,” they added, urging the court to transfer the case to the CB-CID for further investigation.