Court uncovers false claim on 45-acre land

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court detected a scam by two private parties who claimed about 45 acres of prime land at Shamshabad by submitting non-existing court orders. The land has been under dispute since 1958.

Mohammed Qureshi of Falaknuma claimed ownership of around 30 acres of land in Survey No. 725 parts situated at Shamshabad and another person the rest, stating that their ancestors had bought the property from the Paigahs.

They approached the court alleging that the HMDA was interfering with their properties, and filed to purported orders allegedly given by the High Court in 1998 restraining the HMDA. They even filed contempt cases against HMDA.

Advocate-General B.S. Prasad, representing the HMDA, had contended that the private parties were playing fraud. He placed before the court evidence to show that the purported orders did not exist. Documents like receipts from Shamshabad panchayat issued in 2007 were also fake.

He said the petitioners had included receipts issued by the executive authority of Telangana in 2007, but the state had not been formed then.

The High Court had directed the registry to submit a report as to whether the order dated 28.12.1998 in W.P. No.35966 of 1997 existed or not. The Registrar (Judicial-I) submitted a report in a sealed cover on September 29.

The sealed cover was opened by a division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar which indicated that the case had not been registered and the orders were non-existent.

The Bench served the report to both sides and sought their responses on on October 13.