Chandradhaja Sahoo (right) in crime branch custody in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, July 17: Officials of the crime branch’s economic offence wing today arrested a 65-year-old man in connection with a land fraud that took place in 1979.

The accused, Chandradhaja Sahoo, was arrested on the basis of a complaint registered by the Bhubaneswar tehsildar.

Police said Sahoo had applied for the lease of a piece of land measuring two acres at Patia mouza for agricultural purposes. However, he had falsely claimed himself as a landless agricultural labourer having an annual income of Rs 2,000.

“The lease for the land was granted in favour of Sahoo on April 24, 1979, through forged documents and he got the patta in connivance with the tehsil office staff members,” said deputy inspector general of the wing Rajesh Kumar.

The police said the current market value of the patch of land would be more than Rs 100 crore. The fraud came into light after Sahoo had tried to sell the land last year. A case was registered with the wing on November 7 last year.

The police said Sahoo, a native of Nuabanta in the Saheed Nagar police station limits, was arrested under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code.

However, a number of the tehsil office employees, who had helped Sahoo during the fraud, now have either retired from their service or are bed-ridden. “Further investigation is on, and action would be initiated against the tehsil office staff members, who are involved in the land fraud,” said a senior police official.

The police said Sahoo was an influential person at his village and had been absconding since the case was lodged with the wing.

In a similar incident in December last year, the wing arrested three persons for fraudulently grabbing 51.57 acres of government land located at four revenue villages of the city.

The investigating agency arrested the accused for the land scam that took place in 1961. The market value of the land was estimated over Rs 150 crore.