Official booked for forging order copy

The city police have registered a case against a first division assistant (FDA) for forging an order copy of his senior officials at the Revenue Department to help a city-based realtor to acquire a 2.36 acres of land that was taken over by the government a few years ago.

Assistant Commissioner, Revenue Department, Nagaraja L C, who was the then in-charge of Bengaluru South, received an appeal from Maruthi Kumar, a city-based businessman in February 2016, stating 2.36 acres of land in Kothanur which was acquired by the government, belonged to him. Nagaraja, who conducted an inquiry, found that the land belonged to the government and dismissed his petition and posted the order on the notice board.

Six months later, Nagaraja was transferred to north division following which Praveen Kumar, who was then in charge of the pending section, fabricated the order and forged the signature of Nagaraja to make it look like the order was in Kumar's favour.

Using the forged order, Kumar got the property registered in his name at the tahsildar’s office. The forgery came to light in July this month when an RTI activist, after learning that Kumar owned the government-acquired land and got the property registered in his name, filed a complaint with the BMTF. The BMTF officials conducted a probe and issued a notice to Nagaraja seeking an explanation. Verification of documents and signature analysis revealed the documents were forged and fabricated following which Nagaraja approached the Halasuru Gate police and lodged a complaint.