14 FIRs against touts, staff of Bangalore Development Authority for fraud in online plot sale

Indicating rampant corruption in the Bangalore Development Authority, 14 first information reports have been registered against the staff and touts operating there in connection with rigging the ‘foolproof’ online auction of residential plots and frauds related to the registration of property in BDA layouts.

According to details available with PTI, these FIRs were registered at the Seshadripuram police station by the special task force and vigilance wing of the BDA between January 20 to 24.

Sources in the BDA said they had put up plots for auction at Arkavathi Layout, Anjanapura, Banashankari, JP Nagar, newly-formed Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout, Nagarabhavi, HBR Layout and Sir M Visvesvaraya Layout.

The investors were convinced that the portal eproc.karnataka.gov.in was tamper-proof for bidding online. However, it emerged later that the BDA staff in connivance with fake property buyers showed a bogus payment through a bank challan.

Further, the site was blocked, forged documents were created and sold to the fake buyers. There were also instances of fake documents of purchasing plots in these prime layouts.

The names that have commonly figured in most of the FIRs are Kamalamma, Mangala, Venkataramanappa, Anil Kumar, Sanjay Kumar and Virupakshappa, who are employees of the BDA.

Sources in the BDA said the scam runs into hundreds of crores of rupees.

Speaking to PTI, BDA chairperson and Yelahanka BJP MLA S R Vishwanath said the FIRs were registered after it was learnt that the touts and staff broke into the online portal and committed the fraud.