Lawyers booked for trying to grab BBMP land through fake civil suits

Seven people, including some lawyers, have been booked for trying to grab public property worth over Rs 20 crore in the heart of Bengaluru in a fresh case of fake civil suits.

The suspects allegedly created fake documents and later tried to grab the land through a compromise decree by approaching the court.

The suspects include Senthil Kumar, C N Nagaraju, Babu, Sarojini Dotra, Venkatappa and Chitra, said a source from the Ashoknagar police who registered the case following a complaint from BBMP Revenue Inspector (Ward Number 111), H L Ramamurthy.

A source said the property belonged to the BBMP. The fake civil suit was based on a rent agreement created in December 2016. Later, Dotra, one of the lawyers, issued a notice to Nagaraju for violating the rent agreement. The matter was subsequently taken to the Eighth Additional Small Causes Court. BBMP officials had no clue, the source said.

'Owner-tenant' nexus

The suspects used a fake khata certificate and extract to appeal to the court to get the tenant “vacated”. The petitioner and the respondent then submitted a request for a compromise decree, following which the court issued an order. Using the decree, the suspects tried to grab the BBMP land, the source added.

The case is said to be part of a larger scam whereby many vacant sites were grabbed by filing fake civil suits, creating fake petitioners and respondents and seeking compromise decrees from courts.

Following a direction by the high court, the Registrar of Small Causes Court, R Dhanalakshmi, lodged a complaint at the Halasuru Gate police station about the fake civil suit case. The case was later handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Police have so far unearthed 116 cases of fake civil suits while the CID has submitted a preliminary report in the matter.

“As many as 116 fake suits have been filed to grab land worth Rs 600 crore in and outside Bengaluru. Four lawyers have been arrested and are all on bail,” a CID source said.

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