Hyderabad: In a first, four persons, including a Bhu Bharati operator, involved in an alleged illegal land transaction related to a three-acre land parcel, worth over Rs 90 cr, in new realty hotspot Kollur in violation of the Bhu Bharati Act 2025, have been arrested by Crime Investigation Department (CID) officers. The accused were remanded in judicial custody and lodged at the Sangareddy jail on Saturday.
Police said that as per the Bhu Bharati Act, 2025, the revenue divisional officer (RDO) is the authorising authority for mutation. The four arrested accused were booked under Sections 318(4) (Cheating), 335 (Making a false document), 336(2) (Forgery), (3), 337 (Forgery of record of court or of public register, etc), 338 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 340(2) (Forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine), 61(2) (Criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and for the violation of the Information Technology Act. This is the first arrest made by police after govt ordered a probe into the BRS-initiated Dharani and Congress-introduced Bhu Bharati Act, both for maintaining land records.
In July, govt had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), drawing officers from different departments and led by director general of police-rank officer Charu Sinha. The four persons — Dade Shiva, Mangali Rajender, Dade Pavan Kalyan and A Mahesh — were arrested in a case registered in July by the RC Puram police in Sangareddy district. In a complaint to police, Ramachandrapuram tahsildar claimed that while she was verifying the Bhu Bharati operator’s login, she found irregularities in a mutation transaction. The tahsildar office suspected that the Bhu Bharati portal was hacked and revenue records were altered and the illegal entry was made. After conducting the probe, CID officials arrested four persons, including the Bhu Bharati operator. Meanwhile, it is learnt that police have registered similar cases in other districts too. CID officials were tight-lipped about the case details and claimed that they plan to share the full details in the next few days.