The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has launched a probe into an alleged scam involving the issuing of Transferable Development Rights (TDR) by the civic body for road widening projects. Police teams on Friday raided the offices and residences of three people, including an executive engineer who was with BBMP at the time of the alleged scam. The engineer, Krishnalal, is currently with the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

On April 11 this year, the ACB registered an FIR against six people regarding an instance where the price of a property, acquired by the civic body, was inflated to benefit a former owner who had sold the land more than a decade ago. This was done by issuing more TDR than warranted, say ACB officials.

The project involved the widening of a stretch of road between T.C. Palya and Outer Ring Road (ORR). Krishnalal, an executive engineer with the Public Works Department (PWD), was posted in the BBMP during 2013-15 when he issued TDR in this particular case.

The premises of two middlemen — Amith Rikabchand Jain and Deepak Kumar — were also raided.

The land under the scanner is a six-acre 22 gunta plot in Kowdanahalli, which the landlord developed into a revenue layout and sold in the early 2000s. However, revenue records (RTC) remained in the name of the landlord.

A portion of the land was notified for acquisition for the road widening project in 2009. A private firm got the general power of attorney to take TDR for the said property. At the time, the BBMP issued TDR of 52,452.11 sqm.

A preliminary investigation by the ACB revealed that the TDR was not issued to the present owners, but to the one who had sold the land. The BBMP was unable to widen the road as the present owners refused to give up the properties as they did not receive compensation.

The area of the buildings occupied has been inflated by 92% and cross roads developed by BBMP in the revenue layout were included to calculate the TDR. The value of the TDR thus issued is estimated to be ₹56.37 crore.

The ACB has recovered incriminating documents pertaining to the scam from the six premises they raided on Friday, officials said.

More such cases

Multiple sources in both the ACB and BBMP said that the case is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. An official, on condition of anonymity, cited a fraudulent issual of TDR along a 7-km stretch of road. An audit of TDRs issued along this one road alone would put the scam in the range of over a thousand crore rupees, sources said.

Ramesh K., a consultant with SecureProp, a property consultant firm, said, “More worrisome, this seems to be the modus operandi – issue TDR in the name of previous land-owners and overestimation of property – across the city.”

A senior BBMP official admitted that there is a problem. “Issuing TDR without confirmation of the physical possession of property and ground reality clearly indicates collusion, causing loss to the civic body,” said the official.

ACB chief M. Chandra Sekhar did not rule out more probes into such scams. “Given the nature of irregularities, we cannot rule it out,” he said.

Source: The Hindu