Land sharks use courts to harass genuine owners

‘Goldstone’ Prasad was certainly not a one-trick pony. The mastermind behind the `587 crore Miyapur land scam had different modus operandi for different parcels of lands that he set his eyes on.

When it came to grabbing patta/government lands, he had an ingenious way. In one instance in 2005, when Prasad wanted to grab land in survey number 78 in Hafeezpet along the IT corridor, he created two sets of fabricated documents of the lands, registered it in the names of his benamis, adding his daughters and relatives as parties.

Then, based on the two sets of false documents, he would have one of his benamis go to court claiming the lands, and another file a counter. After some days, the second party would give Prasad an ‘Assignment Deed’, stating that they did not have rights over the land. Then, he would effect a ‘Compromise Decree’ in court and go into possession of the disputed lands.

The original patta owners – the government – would never figure as a party. Without the government’s knowledge, Prasad registered a 70 acre parcel.

One of the inheritors of the Khurshid Jah Paiga lands in survey numbers 77 to 80 in Hafeezpet, Mohammad Moizuddin Khan, said they did not know anything about the cases and they had not been named respondents.

“I had settled in London and did not know about the issue until a few months after Prasad cooked up the ‘Assignment Deed’. I had to come back to fight the land grabbers’ case in court,” Mr Khan said.