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Look before you leap: Cashing in on the real estate boom, miscreants are using every trick to sell land to gullible persons.

As the real estate business in the city is booming, so are the cases of land dispute and cheating. Miscreants are adopting every trick in their box to take people for a ride. It is not an exaggeration if said that crowded places in the city have threat from terrorists while open lands are running even more serious risk from land sharks. Police say, before thinking of how not to fall prey to land grabbers, it would be better to understand the different modus operandi adopted by the offenders.

Selling the same plot to many persons is the often heard complaint. This usually happens in case of layouts on city outskirts and plots that are left vacant for years together. Middle class families buy plots either to build houses in the near future or sell them off for better price after few years. The buzz that land rates in city are going up at jet speed encourages this trend.

On the other side, developers focus to increase their profit margin by cutting down on investments by not fencing the plots or building compound wall. Even a watchman is not hired to keep an eye on land grabbers. Taking advantage of this, the cheats show plots of the same venture to another group of buyers and lead them to believe the land is of a different survey number.

Since there is none to inquire, the buyers completely believe claims of the mediators only to be duped. Cheating by the land owners by giving General Power of Attorney (GPA) to more than one real estate developer is another mode. Ten years ago, an acre of land beyond Madhapur was available for Rs. 10 lakh. The same land today fetches more than one or two crores. A land owner who gave GPA to a developer in this area, driven by greed for money, might give another GPA on the same land to second party. People purchasing plots through second party end up fighting endless legal battles losing their money and time. Irony is the second GPA is genuine but legally not valid.

Selling lands using fake documents or by impersonation is one more modus operandi. Though officials tightened the process now, earlier persons not connected to the land also used to secure certified copies of the land documents through sub-registrar offices. The tricksters would claim these certified copies as their own present impostors before the sub-registrars as original land owners and register the plots to buyers. Little care and some inquiries, though painstaking, before purchasing plots would not only check the menacing land mafia but also give security to your hard earned money.

Physically inspect the site, collect details of the neighbouring plots owners, verify with the village revenue officials like patwari and ‘sarpanch’ about the land ownership, secure copies of ‘Pahani’ (land records) and cross-check currently in whose possession (kabja) is the land.

These steps would provide basic details of the land holder. For confirmation, collect, encumbrance certificate from the local Sub-Registrar office. Try to secure copy of the ‘pattadar’ passbook to make doubly sure who the land owner is. Don’t get influenced by the sweet talk of the mediators, insist for copies of above documents from them. Always check up with the revenue officials, if the land being sold came under the Urban Land Ceiling Act. Hire a lawyer to learn from the local police if any civil or criminal cases pertaining to the land are pending. If you have slightest doubt about veracity of the documents, don’t hesitate to approach any private forensic science laboratory to ascertain authenticity of the papers. In Hyderabad, one can rely on Truth Laboratory established by A.P. Forensic Laboratory’s former director K.P.C. Gandhi to get the documents tested by paying the fee.

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