VISAKHAPATNAM: Skeletons continue to tumble out of the Vizag land scam closet, with cases being registered against five more persons on charges of illegal occupation of 13.75 acres of land worth Rs 80 crore belonging to MANSAS Trust at the Bheemli Police Station on Wednesday. Simhachalam Devasthanam executive officer K Ramchandra Mohan, who is also the in-charge EO of the MANSAS Trust lodged a complaint and cases were booked following the direction of the Special Investigation Team which is probing the Visakhapatnam land scam.
According to information, 13.75 acres in survey number 86 at a prime location near the INS Kalinga base at Nerellavalasa village was encroached by Ronanki Venkata Ramana from Marripalem, Palagujjula Srinivasa Rao from Ramnagar, Andiboina Gurumurthy from Pendurthi and Pithani Balakrishna and Paladugu Sambasiva Rao, both from Ramnagar. Having occupied the stretch, they shared 2.75 acres each. They also managed to issue pattadar passbooks in their names. Bheemili Police have registered a case under the Land Act.
In a related development, SIT officials took former tehsildar of Bheemili BTV Rama Rao into custody for interrogating him on his alleged involvement in several land irregularities reported from Bheemili. Recently, SIT officials filed a request petition seeking Rao’s custody and the court issued orders for 5-day custody. Rao is facing allegations of wrongdoing including tampering records pertaining to 158 acres.
“We are confident that we can get crucial information from Rao. We want to clarify some doubts about the Bheemili land irregularities that occurred during Rao’s tenure as tehsildar,” said an SIT official.
The SIT is also mulling questioning Visakhapatnam Rural RDO S Venkatewswarlu who has been accused of taking bribes by Anakapalle MLA Peela Govinda Satyanarayana, he added.
Meanwhile, sleuths of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Visakhapatnam Urban, conducted a surprise raid on the One Town joint sub-registrar’s office in the evening and seized unaccounted money of `2.2 lakh along with many original land documents which were supposed to be handed over to the parties immediately after the registration was completed. The anti-graft team led by DSP K Ramakrishna Prasad raided the premises and found some outsiders including document writers and stamp vendors busy settling sale agreements.