Vijayawada: In a shocking case of land fraud, Markapuram Magistrate Court sent a man to 14-day remand for fraudulently mortgaging property of his villagers for a bank loan. The accused, identified as Gaddam Subbaiah (42) from Siddhenapalem village in Pullalacheruvu mandal of Prakasam district, along with another accomplice, allegedly manipulated revenue records to register govt and private lands under their names.
According to Pullalacheruvu sub-inspector (SI) L Sampath Kumar, the accused, Gaddam Subbaiah and Kolli Veerabrahmayya, managed to register 8.32 acres of land, including residential plots, a govt school site, and other village properties, under Survey No. 296 on their names. They then mortgaged this land at Erragondapalem Cooperative Bank to obtain a loan fraudulently. The scam came to light when local villagers, who own properties in the area, discovered the manipulation and approached higher authorities for justice.
The situation took an ugly turn when, on Friday, Subbaiah allegedly abused and threatened a local woman, Maguluri Lakshmamma,verbally when she confronted about the fraudulent transactions. A police complaint was subsequently filed, leading to his arrest.
Despite Subbaiah’s remand, villagers are now demanding stringent action against revenue officials involved in the fraudulent online registration process. They allege that the village revenue officers (VRO), revenue inspectors (RI), record in-charges, deputy tahsildars, tahsildars, and computer operators accepted hefty bribes to facilitate the scam. The affected families urged authorities to take strict legal action against all officials responsible for the irregularities.
