Victims lodge complaint against land mafia in Vijayawada

Vijayawada: Registration mafia from Rayalaseema prompted the victims to come all the way from Tirupati to CMO, in Vijayawada, to lodge a complaint over the mafia activities.

The modus operandi of the mafia is typical and different. Once any individual is ready for mutation process, to their surprise, a group of mafia people approach the real land owners and tell them that they are the real owners of land. Here the exact game starts.

The issue will move from MRO office to civil courts. From there, again to local police station and there to MRO office. Finally, the land owners have to lose the land to the mafia. It has been going on for a long time with the cooperation of a few officers from revenue and police departments. The revenue minister is also reportedly serious on the entire issue and ordered an internal inquiry, according to sources.

When the issue was brought to the notice of Anatapuram Range DIG J. Prabhakar Rao, he said that the department also came to know about a few instances of similar kind in Rayalaseema in general and Tirupati city in particular.

“We have information about a few rowdy-sheeters and land-grabbers operating from Tirupati city, and they will be nabbed shortly,” the DIG said, and advised the public to be cautious before purchasing land. He also said that action will be taken against the erring police officers if their involvement is found in the false land dealings.

The problem generally arises when a non-resident Tirupati individual purchases land there. When the mafia comes to know about any fresh land purchase, they will approach the local mandal revenue officer with complaints and fake link documents stating that they are real owners of the land and create hurdles for mutation. This leads the land owners to fall into the trap of the mafia.