HYDERABAD: An over 14-acre piece of land, originally owned by a Hindu family in the pre-Partition period, has been saved from being officially converted to a commercial property after an inquiry was initiated by the anti-corruption establishment (ACE).

The ACE has stopped registration of the sale deed for the time being.

A builder-cum-developer, whose chain of projects dots the Hyderabad bypass, was selling plots carved out from the land when the ACE intervened in the matter on a complaint lodged by a resident of Qasimabad, who provided some documentary proofs to the ACE.

The ACE issued call-up notices to the Qasimabad assistant commissioner, the mukhtiarkar and supervising tapedar concerned and tapedar of Deh Mirzapur but none of them appeared before the ACE director enquiries-II, who is conducting the probe.

The piece of land measuring 14-19 acres had been sold by its purported owner until before registration of its sale deed was stopped on ACE’s intervention a few days back.

The builder has sold plots to parties for commercial purpose under an approved layout plan issued by the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA).

The land in question (survey No.358) is originally owned by Pritam Singh, son of Sundar Sigh, according to the form-A (1361) dated Sept 15, 1939, which is “initial document” in the revenue terminology, issued by then revenue authorities. This document shows that Pritam Singh had purchased the land for Rs17,809.14 and paid Rs15,840. The rest of the amount was outstanding against him. Singh is shown the owner of not only the land under survey No.358 but also the 60 acres under the same survey number.

Qasimabad revenue officials disregard call-up notice

“Status of remaining 46 acres of land is not clearly known and an inquiry can detect it as other builders and developers had launched projects in the same vicinity,” said a revenue source.

After the Partition, Singh’s family migrated from Sindh to India, leaving the land behind. The land should have been titled as ‘evacuee property’ and managed by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB). However, relevant documents show that the property was not declared an ‘evacuee property’ nor was it reflected in the name of the ETPB, thus it remains “government land” in record.

The ACE authorities were informed that the actual form-A (1361) of Pritam Singh had “disappeared” and a new form-A (3429) was “created” in record on March 13,1950 which seemed to be forgery. This form (3429) was issued in the name of Chaudhry Mohammad Sadiq who, according to the record, had purchased the land in question for Rs2,895 and paid Rs1,448, showing an outstanding amount of Rs1,447 against him. This record document contains entries made between 1930 and 1940. The entry of Pritam Singh remained in his name till 1947. Surprisingly, Sadiq’s entry of year 1950-51 was written/reflected on top of this document which otherwise ends with an entry of 1948. On the basis of record, survey No.358 was shown as government land in 1948.

“Actually an entry on this papers should have been made post-1948 but it was not done and this has made the entire case dubious,” said a revenue source.

Interestingly, Sadiq became owner of land in 1950-51 but transfer order (TO) form in his name was issued 33 years later, i.e in 1983. He then transferred the property in the name of his grandsons, Imran, Kamran, Mohammad Jameel and Bilal, in 1969 through an oral statement, i.e without any registered deed.

“The entire trail of record looks to be ‘managed’ by officials of revenue department and millions are paid in revenue office of Qasimabad taluka; that’s why this office has become quite infamous for dubious land transaction,” said the source. He added that this family kept transferring the land from one person to the other until 2019 through “oral gift”.

Sadiq’s grandsons got the land partitioned in 2021 to share it amongst them. It was done through the Qasimabad assistant commissioner. A letter dated March 4, 2021 from the land record officer sought officials’ replies regarding some record-related queries. The AC had allowed partition of the land even before the March 4, 2021 letter.

Through a Jan 17, 2022 letter, the director enquiries-II of the ACE asked the assistant commissioner to direct the mukhtiarkar to attend his office on Jan 20. A copy of the letter was sent to the sub-registrar, Hyderabad, to ensure that no transaction in the matter was done.

The Hyderabad commissioner on Wednesday (Jan 26) directed the deputy commissioner to take immediate action over the sale certificates issued in respect of the “government land” under survey No.358. The DC was told to “insert restriction note in red ink with signature, date and seal, on relevant entry in record of rights, to avoid further transactions under intimation to his office”.

The land is said to have been offered by the builder-cum-developer to buyers at a rate of Rs10,000 per sqft which means the venture involves around Rs6.5bn.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2022