Gangs Work In Connivance With Officials, Politicians
Yogesh.Kabirdoss@timesgroup.com 19.09.2020
People who own land along East Coast Road (ECR) and Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) are a worried lot as there has been a spate of attempts since November 2019 to usurp their holdings by organised gangs with political connections.
These gangs connive with officials to create fake land titles to sell off land without the actual owners’ knowledge or, in some cases, use strongarm tactics to force land owners to sell.
Data sourced by TOI revealed that the Tiruporur sub registrar office (SRO) got at least 25 complaints about fraudulent property registrations in the past one year. Worryingly, multiple sources and stakeholders pointed fingers at officials at the SRO, which has jurisdiction over most of ECR and OMR, saying deals with forged documents are not possible without official connivance.
Officers in police stations along the two stretches admit that 90% of all complaints and crimes pertains to land disputes of different sizes.
Recently, the Chengalpet district police wrote to the antiland grabbing cell to investigate two cases. One was a fraudulent registration at the Tiruporur SRO and the other a case of threats to a landowner to usurp two acres at Thaiyur on OMR, a couple of months ago.
Most of the vacant land parcels along ECR and OMR are owned by people who live in the city as also outside. Such absentee landlords are the prime prey of the land sharks.
A city-based businessman with a huge land parcel near a beach near Kovalam says a phone call from a security guard of a neighbouring property alerted him to a bid to grab his property recently. “The gang, which had political connections, went to the extent of measuring the land for construction three months ago. My land was saved from the encroachers thanks to timely intervention by police,” said the man, who wanted to be anonymous.
This landowner says the real danger is that the mafia is able to access details of the land parcels it targets from the registration department.
Police say there are at least 10 large organised gangs based in Kannagi Nagar, Chengalpet, Kalpakkam, Maduranthakam and Sriperumbudur. They have stepped up their activity as the Covid pandemic lockdown has hit other sources of income.
These gangs also instigate local residents who had sold their land cheap years ago to outsiders to demand more money now that property prices have shot up along ECR and OMR. If the present owners refuse, they are threatened by gangsters.
“One such case was reported and it has been transferred to anti-land grabbing cell for investigation. In another case, fake Aadhaar cards were used to create a fake power of attorney to facilitate sale of a property on OMR,” said a senior police officer in Chengalpet district.
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