Bhu Bharati operator, three others held for land mutation scam

The four accused were identified as Dade Shiva, Mangali Rajender, Dade Pavan Kalyan and A Mahesh were arrested in a case registered in July by the RC Puram police in Sangareddy.

Hyderabad: A Bhu Bharati operator and three others involved in an alleged land mutation scam worth Rs 90 crore were arrested by the Telangana Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Saturday, November 7, in Sangareddy.

This is the first arrest in Telangana following a government-ordered investigation into the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) -initiated Dharani and Congress-introduced Bhu Bharati Act, both for maintaining land records.

In July, the Telangana government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), comprising officers from various departments and led by CID Director General Charu Sinha.

The four accused were identified as Dade Shiva, Mangali Rajender, Dade Pavan Kalyan and A Mahesh were arrested in a case registered in July by the RC Puram police in Sangareddy.

In her complaint, the Ramachandrapuram tahsildar claimed that while she was verifying the Bhu Bharati operator’s login, she found irregularities in a mutation transaction.

“On verification, it was noticed that three acres in Kollur village, which was previously recorded in the name of a person, was mutated in favour of B Vinod Kumar by mentioning a registered document,” the tehsildar said,

She added that it is submitted that the mutation application was never reflected in any of the mutation modules or workflow available to this office prior to June 27, 2026.

The tehsildar claimed that Vinod Kumar had not filed any application at her office seeking scrutiny. She also told the police that no field enquiry was conducted, no mutation proposal was prepared, no recommendation was submitted by her office, and no approval was granted by the authorities before proceeding with the mutation.

According to a report by the Times of India, the Sangareddy police said, as per the Bhu Bharati Act, 2025, the revenue divisional officer (RDO) is the authorising authority for mutation.

The tahsildar’s office suspected that the Bhu Bharati portal was hacked, revenue records altered and an illegal entry made. The CID did not reveal details of the case, stating that the matter is under investigation.

The accused, Shiva, Ranjender, Pavan Kalyan and Mahesh, were booked under Sections 318(4) (Cheating), 335 (Making a false document), 336(2) (Forgery), (3), 337 (Forgery of record of court or of public register, etc), 338 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 340(2) (Forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine), 61(2) (Criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).