Brazen land scam in city shocks govt, law enforcement officials

Kolkata: Land scams in Kolkata have apparently spread their tentacles so far and wide that even government-owned lands are now being sold off without the authorities having any clue of the matter. Three plots of land in Rajarhat’s Action Area AA-I belonging to West Bengal Housing Development Corporation (WBHIDCO) got sold to a resident of South Kolkata without the authorities apparently having any clue about the sale. The police arrested several persons in the case over July and August. The depth of the fraud has even shocked the law enforcement agencies.

The scam was unearthed when the victim Soumi Bhattacharya, who was sold the plots of land by three persons posing as senior HIDCO officers with identity cards, went to the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) to check if the plots were mutated in her name. She was told no such mutation application was ever made. This led her to visit the HIDCO office where she was informed that the plots concerned were never sold by HIDCO and neither was any letter of allotment issued by them. Her calls to the persons posing as HIDCO officers went unanswered. The victim realised she was duped of Rs 2,21,87,088.

In the complaint lodged at Techno City Police Station, New Town, on July 18, the victim mentioned that in January 2023 she was approached by three persons Tanmoy Nayak, Indra Banerjee and Akash Patra posing as senior HIDCO officers. They proposed to her that HIDCO is selling various properties within the New Town area under the jurisdiction of Techno City Police Station for setting up residential houses at a reasonable price. Being convinced, she bought three plots of land at New Town Action Area AA-I. Two were of middle income group categories while one was of (HIG) high income group category.

To obliterate room for doubt, the fraudsters told her that she has to pay the total amount of Rs 2,21,87,088 through demand draft in favour of HIDCO only.

Impressed by their representation she applied to HIDCO for purchase and also received a letter in return duly allotting her the plots. She alleged that the letter was issued under the letterhead of HIDCO and was signed by “Joint Director (Admin)” on behalf of HIDCO. She was intimated that the deal would only be completed subject to full payment of the amount. She paid the entire amount through 12 demand drafts.

The victim also alleged involvement of the Additional Registrar of Assurance-I, Kolkata. She alleged she executed two registered Deeds of Conveyance with HIDCO represented by one Surjya Sankar Acharya and Sujan Biswas; two more accused in the fraud.

Bhattacharya mentioned the two deeds were executed before the Additional Registrar of Assurance-I, Kolkata at an amount of Rs 1,10,93,544 each. She claimed she paid all the statutory charges regarding stamp duty and registration fees to the department concerned of the state government.

When Bhattacharya learnt she was defrauded, she visited her bank (ICICI) to verify encashment of the demand drafts and was “dumbfounded” to learn the amount was credited to an account of HIDCO maintained at IDBI Bank. Out of the 12 demand drafts, three of them amounting to Rs 54,83,016 were not encashed in favour of the accused persons. The victim alleged the fraud couldn’t have been carried out without the help of inside people of HIDCO, IDBI Bank and Pradip Kishore Gupta, Additional Registrar of Assurance-I, Kolkata. The case was taken up by Detective department of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate where the SI of police, Pulak Ghosh, informed the Court of Ld. CJM, Barasat, North 24-Parganas that the FIR named accused persons were staying in Delhi and adjacent states.

Two accused Sudipta Banerjee and Ashok Patra were arrested. On interrogating them, three more names surfaced: Niladri Roy, Dipankar Sardar and Abhishek Das. Niladri is learnt to have provided technical support for the fraud. He admitted his guilt and agreed to assist the police to grab the others involved. The rest too were booked and lodged in the custody at techno city police lock up.