Balangir, Sept. 5: Crime branch sleuths today arrested three former officers who were allegedly involved in fraudulent transaction of farmers’ land at Patnagarh in the district.

The police arrested the then tehsildar of Patnagarh Gobinda Prusty, sub-registrar Bikash Kujur and revenue inspector Basudev Patel for their alleged roles in land transaction of some farmers, who lost their land to a few companies based in Agra and New Delhi.

“We arrested them today and they were produced before a court at Patnagarh. They were remanded in judicial custody after the court rejected their bail,” superintendent of police (crime branch) Duryodhan Rout said.

While Prusty and Patel have since been retired from service, Kujur is posted at Bhawanipatna.

Rout said he had visited the villages and talked to the affected farmers last month and found the officers’ role in the deal.

Earlier, the crime branch had arrested two persons, who had posed as representatives of the companies and threatened the farmers.

In 2005, some private companies, based in Delhi and Agra, contacted the farmers and told them that they were interested in taking their lands on lease to take up jatropha cultivation.

The company’s representatives got the farmers to visit the tehsil office to sign on documents and took over their lands on the basis of fraudulent promises.

Without verifying the antecedents of the companies, the farmers signed on the dotted lines of the sale deeds. Some of the affected villages at Patnagarh are Jalpali, Ghumer, Ainlatunga, Ghunghutipali.