Rs 1000 cr land scam unearthed in Orissa

BHUBANESWAR: After multi-crore rupeess mining scam, a land scam had been unearthed in Orissa by the Crime Branch (CB) of the state police today with arrest of five persons in this connection, official sources said.

The CB sleuths arrested one Nirmal Chandra Mohanty, a former tehsildar, on charge of fradulently recording valuable land in the state capital in his and his family members' name, said P K Das, the investigating officer of the case.

Besides, the CB had also taken four others -- Gundichi Bijay Barik, Nrushingha Charan Barik, Bharat Barik and Bijay Kumar Barik -- to custody after prima facie evidences were received against them.

Together, they had embezzled about 300 acre of land worth Rs 1,000 crore, Das said indicating that more arrests could be made in near future.

The CB was handed over the land scam cases in 2006 while the original cases were registred at the Capital Police Station here in 2005.

"It required about 18 months to collect evidence against the accused persons", Das said adding that scientific methods were used to identify the accused persons.

The four arrested persons used to record land in their names with the help of Mohanty. Besides helping others, Mohanty also acquired some land fradulently, he said.

"The CB was hopeful of freeing valuable 300 acre of land from the posession of the powerful land mafia," a senior policeman said adding some influential persons were also suspected to be behind the scam.