Five officials from the revenue department and 22 villagers of Firozabad have been accused for showing farm land as residential.
The accused had forged documents and took additional compensation amounting to Rs 3.29 crore from the state government, according to officials.
Yogesh Nath Lal, UPEIDA special field officer spilled beans on the matter. He informed that although the land was registered as residential, it was being used for farming purposes.
However, the scam was only revealed after the revenue record revealed that land which was shown as residential became a source of tax.
A plot was shown as a residential plot; the sale deed was forged. In July 2012, the sale deed showed that the plot was residential.
In the Bachela-Bacheli village under Sirsaganj tehsil, land was acquired through scrupulous means. The government had issued two notifications consecutively. The first notification was issued in October 2013 and the second in December 2013.
As bad things always come to an end, this scam also caught attention. Complaints were received in nexus with this scam. In response to the complaints, the district magistrate Vijay Kiran Anand had constituted a team under additional district magistrate to inquire into the matter.
A few settlement officers have been identified as accused including Nitin Chauhan, assistant settlement officer Bhagwan Swaroop Tripathi, reader (settlement officer court) Dafedar Khan, consolidator, Virendra Kumar Dwivedi and chakbandi lekhpal Anil Kumar. Along with these officials, 22 other residents of Bachela-Bacheli village were also named.
Shikohabad station officer Sompal Singh Saini said, “On the complaint of the UPEIDA official, an FIR has been registered against then revenue and land acquisition officials under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467(forging of documents), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document) and 120 B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.”
