Bhubaneswar, Dec. 27: Officials of the crime branch’s economic offence wing today arrested three persons for allegedly selling of 51.57 acres of government land worth over Rs 150 crore in the city.

The accused persons — Narayan Chandra Pradhan, 78, Arun Kumar Bhanj, 48, and Bansidhar Pradhan, 54 — used fraudulent means to record the land spread over four revenue villages in the city in their names and subsequently sold them to various people. Construction in the encroached areas is in full swing at the moment.

It is alleged that in 1961, two persons — Keshab Chandra Mohapatra and Udaya Nanda — had grabbed the land by forging documents at Rokat, Gadakana, Mancheswar and Pandara revenue villages. Mohapatra and Nanda, who are no more alive, had sold the land to the three accused. In the early seventies, the fraud was detected and the revenue department removed their names from the land records and acquired the acres.

But, the three accused are alleged to have doctored documents in their names and managed to sell the plots to unsuspecting people.

A crime branch official said they had registered the case on July 3 after they received a complaint from the general administration department.

“We are investigating the role of government officials in the scam as it is not possible to encroach huge patches of prime land without the connivance of officials,” said deputy inspector general of the economic offence wing Rajesh Kumar.

A case in this connection was registered 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.

Land scam in Bhubaneswar has been in the focus for quite long. It is for this reason that the state cabinet in July had given its nod to the proposal of producing the record of rights mandatory at the time of land sales.

Sources said around 1,400 acres in the city had been under the clutches of encroachers.