Police uncover 25 cases of land grabbing using fake Aadhaar cards, 158 acres restored to owners

Vijayapura: The district police have identified 25 cases pertaining to land grabbing by creating fake landowners through duplicate Aadhaar cards in the district.   

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, district superintendent of police Laxman Nimbargi said a total of 27 cases were investigated between 2022 and 2024. 

Of these, charge sheets were submitted in court against 200 suspects in 25 cases. A total of 158 acres and 12 guntas of land in addition to 9 non-agricultural land had been returned to the owners, the SP said. ‘B’ report had been submitted in the remaining two cases, he said. 

Most of the suspects are commission agents involved in land deals or bond writers working in the offices of the sub-registrars. 

They would collate information about land parcels up for sale, their owners and the locations of such land. The suspects would target owners of land who are elderly or those living alone in the villages.

The offenders would also identify poor people and collect their Aadhaar cards by promising them money. The next step was to replace the names of the poor landless people with that of the landowners in the Aadhaar cards. The fabricated cards would them be used to usurp the land of the targeted owners.