Bhubaneswar, June 19: The crime branch today arrested six persons, including five government officials, for their alleged involvement in a land scam of Rs 100 crore in Pipili.

The accused had used forged papers to convert about 70 acres of government land into private property. They were identified as suspended BDO of Bahalda block in Mayurbhanj Dillip Kumar Pattnaik, former record-keeper of Pipili tehsil office Gandharv Pradhan, Pipili revenue inspector Banshidhar Panda, amin Ishwar Pradhan, former amin Benudhar Parija and Sankarsan Nayak of Panitala village in Pipili.

Additional director-general of police (crime branch) B.K. Sharma said a special squad of the revenue and disaster management department found that forged documents had been used to divert government land to private people. “The department then lodged a complaint and we registered four cases in February and March last year. We then started the probe,” said Sharma.