Revenue Minister R Ashoka promises probe into Sringeri property registration scam

The government will conduct an inquiry into the property registration scam recently reported in Sringeri, Revenue Minister R Ashoka said on Thursday.

The inquiry will be conducted by the Inspector General for Registration (IGR) and the report will be submitted within a month, he said.

The minister was responding to a case highlighted by MLA T D Raje Gowda, where money deposited for a property registration was later found to be diverted to a private account.

In the zero hour, the Congress MLA narrated the recently discovered irregularity.

“A buyer had deposited Rs 5.32 lakh ahead of his property registration, upon which the registration process was completed. When the treasury tallied the records later, the software showed that it was filed. But when it was verified with the bank, it showed that the money was drawn from the account holder’s branch, only to be deposited back again in his account. The data operators in the office have accounts across different banks. The sub-registrar has asked for an inquiry against the buyer, the two data operators and treasury officials,” the MLA said.

To this, Ashoka said a thorough inquiry would be taken up.

According to the MLA, this was a scam managed through a network. “The Khajane-1 software was updated to Khajane-2 in 2016, as the earlier software had glitches. In the new software, there is no provision to collect government money from the banks. The system directly transfers it to the government account after which a statement is generated. However, after this, the miscreants have transferred the amount through cyber hacking,” Gowda explained.

The sub-registrar has already given a complaint to the chief secretary, advocate general and treasury commissioner. However, no action has been taken so far, Raje Gowda said.