About Me

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Dr. T. V. Rao is currently Chairman, TVRLS. A former professor and Board member at IIMA, Dr. Rao is the Founder President of National HRD Network and has been in the forefront of HRD movement in the country. Dr. Rao worked as a short-term consultant to UNESCO, Bangkok; USAID Indonesia; UNIDO Malaysia; and Commonwealth Secretariat, London and as HRD Consultant in India to over a hundred organizations in the public and private sectors. Dr. Rao received many awards including Ravi Matthai Fellow (AIMS), Asia Pacific HR Professional of the year 2019 (APFHRM) and Lifetime Achievement Award from Indian Academy of Management. Authored over 60 books.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Corruption and Land Grabbing

It is Corruption that makes land grabbing possible Everywhere: Everyone has a Share
I am sitting here in Hyderabad for the last seven weeks to sort out the illegal sale of my house property by some group of goons. It was sold twice within a week without my knowledge. My routine for the last few weeks almost has become - every day meeting the police in the morning and Advocates in the evening and collecting necessary documents and taking precautions that those who sold my house by way of impersonation and forgery don’t forcibly occupy my house.
I had a lot of things to do in July and August including – the release of my book on Hurconomics scheduled in mid July, Organization of the IIMA Society Conference in September, Presentation of our report to C-DOT in July, Conducting a vision workshop for GPCL, Visiting Lalbahadur Shastry Academy at Mussouri for sharing my experience of Leadership Development, Planning my course on Intellectual capital at IIMA etc. to mention a few. Leaving all these I am here in Hyderabad amidst privately hired security to protect myself, my family and my property. Two months of my productive time which could have been devoted to serve the government, IIMA, HR Community and others has been wasted.

As I started sharing my experiences of how my property was sold without my knowledge, many people shared their own experience and sympathised with me. The only thing they say is that “Truth will win and you will win and it is only going to take a lot of time!

How much time, no one knows! The estimates given by various people vary from one year to 20 years. The most optimistic estimate I got from one of the Advocates is about a year and half. That too in spite of a clear evidence that I have been impersonated and a Special Power of Attorney (SPA) was created, on the basis of which a General Power of Attorney (GPA) - cum- sale deed was also created on the same day and the property was sold and registered a month latter and even before it was registered it was sold to another person to complicate the issues.

In all seven people were involved and with probable support from unknown elements across two Registration offices to facilitate registration of the property without complete verification. The office in fact even missed to verify whether the seller (who was impersonated) had provided the same address across all the documentation submitted.

While the police have been very cooperative in registering this criminal case promptly, they have yet been unable to trace the accused and make any arrests, as the accused are absconding! All addresses indicated on the documents are false . Despite these false addresses I was surprised to learn that the impersonators and associated parties had filed suits and petitions without appearing in the court and engaging their advocates in an attempt to trouble and pressurize me .

The various agencies in the Government can’t do much other than sympathise. Some people look for opportunity to make money out of this and a few others say that they can’t do much either because the law does not permit them or they don’t have resources to nab the culprits or get the fake sale deed cancelled. How so ever genuine your case may be it has to be fought in the court of law for no fault of yours. If you have not seen a court in your life, here’s a chance to experience one now! Not in one court but two: one civil and the other criminal. Winning one will facilitate the other but you never know when you can win either of them. Even if you do, they can keep on appealing to higher courts!

I am giving below the lessons I have learnt from this episode and I like to share my experience with all professionals and others who own a property or a house and may not be staying there all the time.

My Story:  653 Jubilee Hills: This House Belongs to Prof. T. V. Rao and This is Not for Sale:

In the last week of June 2011 when I was in Malaysia I received a telephone call that my house No. 653 Jubilee Hills is in trouble. I rushed to Hyderabad and was told by a few builders that it was put on sale six months ago and duplicate documents were being circulated. I lodged a complaint with the police and advertised in papers that it is not for sale. I also applied for encumbrance certificate which I got four days later and was horrified to discover that it was sold as per the registered documents at the Registrar’s office twice between 25th June and 27th June. I was impersonated, my signatures were forged and false Special Power of Attorney and General Power Attorney cum sale deed documents were created to transfer the property .

Fortunately as I was alerted by a builder (perhaps a little late) but early enough so that I could get back to Hyderabad and save the property from illegal occupation .

July 2nd: I reached Hyderabad on 2nd July morning directly from Malaysia and took charge of my house. Fortunately it was not occupied by anyone else and our watch man was there. I brought it to the notice of Additional DG, CID (who recently got a President’s Gold Medal for his work) and as per his advice lodged a complaint at his office on 4th July. They started the investigation immediately.

It was suggested that I go to the highest authority since local police don’t entertain such complaints on land grabbing as they are civil matters. They don’t lodge an FIR merely on the basis of your complaint. They need to investigate and prima facie find out the genuineness of your complaint.

At the time of lodging the complaint, I was not even aware that my house had already been sold. All that I had was information that someone was impersonating me and trying to sell my house. The police advised me to get the encumbrance certificate to ascertain that the house was in my name. Everyone was assuring that a sale may not have happened as I had detected well in advance and had possession of the house. They also advised me to give a news paper advertisement indicating that the property was not for sale. I advertised in two of the local newspapers.

I was advised that this is a civil case and the police station at Jubilee Hills would not entertain such civil cases. I confirmed this by contacting the police and was told that they would be unable to entertain such cases as property matters are civil matters and they had to focus their attention on more serious law and order matters. By that time we did not know that this was turning out to be a criminal case of impersonation and forgery.

July 4th: I visited an Advocate and filed a caveat in three courts (lower, Upper and High). I did not know until I met the lawyer that the people who sold my house illegally may claim the property through any of the three courts until the advocate told me. I tried to apply for the encumbrance certificate. (I latter came to know that you need not apply for encumbrance certificate to know the status of the property and it is available on the net.).

There was a delay in obtaining the encumbrance certificate due to the Telengana agitation and delays at the Registrar’s office on account of an officer retiring.. Finally I got to know only on Thursday (7th July) that the property was not on my name and had been sold twice to two different people. I had shock of my life.

July 8: I informed this to the police and they acted fast and investigated and procured some of the documents. They were sure by 11th that this was a case for an FIR.

July 11th: The whole day went to file an FIR. Many technicalities had to be ascertained. It took almost a day to complete the formalities in filing the FIR.

July 16: I received a court notice on this day from the persons who illegally created documents and sold my property alleging that they were in possession of my house and I was troubling them and not handing over the original papers. They seemed to know the places where I had filed a caveat and they filed the suit in another court where my advocate had not filed caveat. They had requested the court to give an injunction preventing me from any further action and to hand over the documents. I was extremely lucky to have detected this in time (despite the other party’s attempt to file this in another court) and could demonstrate possession to the court. If I would not have known this in time, I might not have been able to attend the court with a possibility that I could have been ordered by the court to vacate my own property!

This was the next shock of my life. Not only your property has been sold by impersonation and forgery but you are served a notice as though they are in possession of the property. Strangely the court notice gets delivered to me at the address of my own property and the petitioners give another address from where they filed the suit.

I had to search and get one of the best Advocates in the city to represent me. Every one advised me that I must go to the best since there could be a possibility of the miscreants attempting to ‘buy off’ advocates representing my case.. I had heard many stories about money used to accomplish anything!. So I had to find an advocate who was reliable and loyal. One has to use one’s contacts. We did that and got one of the good teams to work with us.

The case came for hearing a fortnight latter and the fortnight went with high anxiety and preparation of counter for the suit. This required generating proof that I was in possession of the house and also that the people involved were doing things with criminal intentions. The CID was very helpful. They conducted a “panchnama” and gave me certificates of my possession of the house. The witnesses included revenue Mandal officials who served notice for payment of dues just a few days before. They had no doubt about my stay. Photographs were taken, videos were taken, neighbours were called and their evidence was taken and it took almost a full day for Panchnama.

In the mean time I was advised to write to water, electricity, registration departments, Jubilee ills society, Municipal Corporation etc. requesting them not to entertain any changes in the ownership of the property as it had been illegally sold to some parties using impersonation and forgery. Some of the department officials refused to take my letter when I went personally to serve the letter while some others were very helpful and sympathetic. The water supply manager in charge in fact gave me a print out of all the payments I made in the last three years saying that “Professor, this will be helpful for you”

The Registrar’s office refused to take the letter as it put the office name as Erragadda and not “Jubilee Hills”. It was strange that the registrar’s office could register crores worth property without even checking the authenticity of the addresses and inconsistencies in the documents but refused to take a letter that did not type the correct office name! They wanted a separately typed letter and corrections were not acceptable! They also mentioned that they didn’t entertain any such requests to stop registration unless they get an order form the court. The number of trips I had to make to each of them and the nature of responses I got was varied and interesting.

July 16: My well wishers one day organised a press conference and all the local TVs and Newspapers were at my house. It was telecast spontaneously stating that IIM Professor’s house was sold without his knowledge. One of them was wrongly told that I was on the PM’s Advisory Council perhaps to attract the attention of the media. I had to tell them that I was not a member of such council though two of my former colleagues from IIMA are and tell them my other involvement in Administrative Reforms, Finance Ministry’s HR committee for PSBs etc. The news and TV coverage seemed to have done some good as the next few days in most offices I visited, the officials immediately recognised my case and were very helpful. I was even told by the Jubilee Hills Society that some buyers had come to verify if they had got cheated with their purchases!.

August 1: The case came for hearing and we produced all evidence stating that the miscreants had mislead the court and we were in possession of the house and that they sold the house by impersonation etc. The honourable Judge apparently was very unhappy with their advocate who had not ascertained the facts before filing the suit. He dismissed the case as withdrawn as their advocate did not press for it. The court advanced the hearing meant to take place on 1-11-2011 to 1-8-2011 and dismissed the case. This was the first victory against the goons.

Since then the police have investigated and uncovered the following story:

1. The search for illegally taking away this property where I have a house and am only an infrequent visitor had begun almost a year ago. The land grabbers had perhaps observed that this was one of the houses where the owner did not always stay and the house was looked after by a watchman. (I have been visiting and staying in the house frequently. They procured some receipts like property tax receipts, electricity bills etc. with the help of some one (just about three of them)). They procured the sale deed duplicate copy either from the registrar office or the Society. The Registrars give duplicate copy to anyone who pays a small fee of around Rs. 100. They put the sale deed in the market stating that the Professor is old, unwell, no one is looking after, he needs money etc. I don’t know what other stories they circulated.

2. On one of the days when I was in my house in May 2011, they arranged some person to meet me pretending to be from the municipal corporation and verifying the authenticity of electoral rolls. They had wrong names listed in my property and naturally I asked them to correct the same. They asked for my photograph and a form to be filled and an electricity bill to be given as proof of residence. I had given all of them. They used the photograph and the electoral rolls thus collected from me and forged my signature.

3. Election Card: With the help of the photographs and signature they created an election card. They may be in the business of creating such cards and they may have several such cards. Rather they created two election cards one with my photograph and the other with the imposter’s photograph. The imposter appeared to be a bald old man.

4. SPA: They registered the Special Power of Attorney in the name of one TN as though I have authorised him to sell my property to any one for around Rs 5.5 crores. The SPA was signed as T V Rao by the imposter and fake election card of fake T V Rao was used for the same. The SPA was registered on 19th May - the same day when they collected my photograph from my house (enough proof that I was in Hyderabad on the day the SPA was registered). It was registered in Kukatpally registrar’s office. I understand that after the SPA gets registered the original is given to the SPA holder to do the sale deed and only a copy is kept in the registrar’s office. This duplicate is not given to anyone but the police were able to get a copy.

5. GPA cum sale Deed: Using the same SPA they created a new General Power of Attorney cum sale deed indicating that T V Rao had sold the property to another person by name MNR and also authorised him to make further sales of the property. This was created on 19th May and submitted for registration on 25th May along with the SPA. However while submitting the SPA at Erragadda office (a different registration office) the old man‘s (imposter’s) photographs were substituted in the election card and the SPA, with my Photographs. This was easy as the Registrar does not sign on the photo or stamp on the photo. Anyone can change the photographs on SPAs and create false SPAs. You just have o remove one photograph and substitute with another.

6. The document of GPA cum sale deed was registered on 27th and the same day another sale deed was created and a part of the property (500 Square yards of the 1442 Sq yards with the house on it) was sold to the third party called JB for Rs 2 crores.

7. The required stamp duty was paid to the registrar - which amounted to a total of Rs 40 lakhs. When such a big amount was being paid ,the Registrar’s office apparently did not bother to check on who was selling to whom and check the authenticity of parties involved. I have been told that sometimes laws are flouted with computers switched off and no visits to the sites. (Someone mentioned to me that there is a rule that the registrar should visit all properties worth over a crore of rupees to ascertain authentic of the sale. I have not come across anyone doing it.) My experience with properties in Gujarat and Bangalore indicated that any buyer of a property of even as small as Rs 20 lakhs should put an advertisement in papers, should use and an advocate for transfer and drafting sale deeds and assisting in registration and should be present at the time of registration and subject himself to be photographed via the computer. I was told that while the same requirement is there in some of the offices in Hyderabad, the cameras sometimes do not work (apparently to suit the convenience of the buyers or sellers so that fraudulent transactions can be passed smoothly).

8. In none of the documents the addresses given of anyone except mine is correct. The identity cards issued are election card, ESI card, Office ID card, Driving licence etc. No one has given the PAN number of anyone. No details are mentioned about the manner of payment of Rs 5.5 crore in one transaction, 5.9 crore in another and Rs 2 crore in the third. No copy of the draft paid etc. are attached. Yet the Registrar’s office had liberally registered two transactions indicating that probably all rules were not followed. The police has made the Registrar also as one of the parties in the FIR. If that the registrar’s office of Kukkatpally is also involved, appropriate officers from that office were also probably a party to this illegal transaction.



While an FIR has been filed and the police are investigating the matter I am living with my family in Hyderabad with good wishes of well wishers and assurance that the registration will be cancelled and I will get back the title of property. There is constant advice from well wishers that there could be a threat to our life we should arrange our own security. Police cannot provide any security but will be there to help if any one tries to disturb us while staying in our own house.

I bought the property by becoming a member of the Jubilee Hills cooperative House Building Society in 1974 a few months after I joined in IIMA. The membership was only Rs. 100 and the development charges amounted to less than Rs. 20,000 by the time it was registered. When I bought it the place was a jungle and in the midst of stones. When we completed construction of the house in 1988 it was the only house around that area and could easily be spotted even from the aeroplane. Now it has become a posh area and I have been living here whenever I came to Hyderabad. The house has hosted many HRD Professionals and Dignitaries including Udai Pareek, Fr. Abraham, PVR Murthy, etc. for three of the National HRD Network conventions between 1990 and 2000 and later saw the birth of TVRLS.

Now the property is expensive. I am told that it is valued at around Rs seven crores. At one time it had even gone up to double that amount before Telengana agitation.

Judicial system seems to work well: Fortunately the judicial system seems to work. When the suit came up for hearing by the City Civil court Senior Judge, he understood the fraudulent transaction and even warned the advocate representing the fraudsters not to defraud the court. He did not allow their suit and their advocate had to withdraw and the suit dismissed. This gave us the first relief. Within a few days of getting this relief we heard that the group of seven who have created the documents and sold the property had appealed to the high court to squash the FIR. We had a nightmarish experience once we heard this. By this time the Investigating officer of the CID had got a lot of evidence about the fraudulent transactions. The judge who was sharp did not need much of an argument. He simply asked for the date of SPA and the date of sale deed. Since both dates are same why was there a need for SPA? He also noted that the first sale took place on 25th June and the second on 27th and both registered on the same day. He indicated that this was something fishy and the police should be allowed to investigate. It is such judgements that help people like me to have faith that justice will be done.

There are a number of honest officers in the government. However there are also a number of corrupt people and perhaps the number is proportionate to the number of corrupt people among all of us citizens. If government officers like the police, registrar’s office, public prosecutors, municipal corporation officials etc. are not corrupt it is difficult for citizens to carry out their corrupt designs. We can’t change the society overnight but we must at least wipe out corruption in the government officials so that goons don’t have their way.

If the Government officials had done their job well I would not have had to spend seven weeks and waste so many other people’s time. For example the imposter who acted as Prof. T. V. Rao had given his address while signing the SPA as that of a colony meant for economically backward communities. This address and the Election ID address of 653 Jubilee Hills was quite a contradiction. If the Government officer had just observed this fact, that the entire impersonation could have been prevented.

I must acknowledge that our country is still what it is because of several honest officers in the government. I found the police officers in CID do their best. The DIG in Stamps & Registration office went out of way to find the truth and file his version to the IG Stamps. The Manager in Metro water works was very helpful.

The real culprits are yet to be caught. All the seven who masterminded the property grab seem to be from middle or lower economic strata. They are aged between 25 and 35 years. They would not have earned so much to buy a property in Jubilee Hills. Their intention was to make a few quick multiple sales of the same property and disappear. Apparently this happens frequently. Also there are indications that some influential politicians may be involved in encouraging such land grabs. If Influential Politicians and Ministers are involved it may become extremely difficult for the police to nab the culprits as the politicians may go to any length to protect their name from coming out.


Anna’s fight is right. We should have India free of corruption.

Prof. T. V. Rao

54 comments:

VENKATESWARLU said...

Sir If such is the security for the constructed house what is the fate of the vacant plot.

T.Venkateswarlu
FDPM 2011 IIM A
Asst.Professor
GITAM Institute of Management

sush writes said...

My heart goes out to you TV . Sending all the energy and best wishes ,
Sushma sharma

Unknown said...

its great,this type of post definately
educate and update peoples
www.mkdhawan.com

Neeta said...

Sir,It's an unbelievable truth.I just wonder if people dare to do such fraud with well educated and high profile people,then what kind of fear a less educated person will have.India is Really becoming highly insecure place to live.Let's hope for the best and wish you all the best.

Anonymous said...

I was aware of this issue through media. First hand account is revelation. Hearty congratulations for resolute actions to defeat evil designs and best wishes for preservation.

Best was your personal occupation, CID panchnama and hire of best legal team. Yes it is not uncommon to ‘buy off’ of advocates (or for that matter even judiciary). Often such offenders pass as respected citizens.

Thanks for caring to share experience which could be of help to many.

- Ketan Bhatt, IIMA

Madhavan Pillai A said...

Dear Sir,

Good to know that you have got the property. I really hope they catch the culprits.Thanks for the detailed post which would serve as a reference for others caught in a similar situation.

Regards,
Madhavan Pillai A
PGP2, IIM Ahmedabad

RL-India said...

Dear Sir,
Would like to be straight and direct, are we doing anythhing on 'curruption within the HR fraternity'? I have raised this in couple of forums, nevertheless, there is no momentum on this.

Manikutty said...

Thanks, TV, for bringing this out for the information of us. I frankly did not envision such frauds being done with such impunity. Hope you are in full undisputed possession of the house soon!

Manikutty

Anil Harihar said...

My experiences is same.But what to do.I don't know, weather "Jan Lokpal" will cleans some of these issues.

Anonymous said...

Hello professor. It looks like my previous comment was censored. Please verify if you truly conduct yourself by yardstick that you used to judge others on corruption. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

There are several big loop holes in the way government works and operates. This makes it easy for anyone to impersonate someone and make easy money. The latest Aadhar UID card is very good example. The card will be used for identification purpose for passport, licence and so many other things. But the officer at UID document collection center where I visited did not verify the documents submitted with the original ones. So one can easily misuse this and forge photocopies and impersonate other person. Governance is horrible in India.

Manisha said...

Dear Sir,

It is both heartening to see how hard you are fighting for your right and some good samaritans helping you but also sad that this scale of fraud is being done at this level. At this rate we can imagine what the lower strata of society would be going through. Hope that you get through this troubled time soon and get back the possession of your house.
Wishing you a very Happy Teachers' Day. Thank you for showing that you should not shy away for fighting for what is right.

with regards,
Manisha.

Anonymous said...

This is in response to the post on Corruption and land grabbing. World and particularly India seem to have changed so much. From teaching people to help others through Udai Pareek's extension motivation we had to move to teaching others to protect themselves. This is what the Independent India has brought us up to. It is sad that the police could not find even one out of the many invovled in the case. Such corruption benefits the police, the lawyers, the registrars office, the brokers, the lawmakers and every one. It looks to be an alternate source of employment for many.

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

It is true that police are yet to find the culprits. They seem to be much smarter than the police. I am told that once an FIR is registered it remains valid until the people are arrested. There were attempts from some people taking the names of some minsiters to influence the police. I understand that the police CID did not entertain them. Many such cases are being talked about after this event. I never understood why it is so difficult for the registration department to cancel a registration done by impersonation when the photographs registered in one of their offices as that of Prof. T. V. Rao is clearly not that of T V Rao and the people who registered the documents are not traceable. Do we still have to wait for the courts to decide? I am amzed at the systems we and our policy makers have created. It is being suggested repeatedly to me that I should contact the Chief Minsiter of AP and mention to him about this event. I am refraining from doing this as I beleive that CMs time is more important for toehr things than to sort out the alnd grabbing of an individual. I think we should work out ways to reform our system in ways benefical to many. Any views?

Anonymous said...

What kind of a Country we are moving towards?
You are sitting in your own house. Some one (with the help of group of goons who keep looking for kabja of other peoples' property) sees a quiet and happy home and sees the insiders as quiet people and decalres the house as his. All that he needs to do is to create a special power of attorney, find an imposter and register the property. You suddenly discover youa re no more the owner. The Registrar's office does not need any proof. Any one can walk inot his office with an ID card, pay the registration fee and the property is registered. The origianl owner has to fight the case he has to pay a hefty court fee even to file a case. What kind of laws have we made? Is this meant to protect Citizen's or the goons? When will our laws change?

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

An Update from the author:
October 8: This evening I learnt from the police that they finally succeeded in arresting one of the fraudsters who created the special power of attorney. He stated that he and the second person in the gang to whom he sold the property on paper even visited Ahmedabad a few months ago before carrying out this fraud, posing as people who wanted information about MBA admissions. This only means that this gang has carried out a well planned operation.
October 9: Today I got a phone call from another person who stated himself as a friend's friend (apparently works with accenture and lives in Madhapur) of the main fraudster who carried out the entire operation. He said that his friend’s friend realises his mistake and is not able to go to his house for fear of getting arrested. He now wants to lead a peaceful life and is not interested in fighting the case. He wanted to know if the message reached me. I suggested to him that they should undo the damage that has been done by cancelling the false registration done fraudulently. As the matter is with the police and in courts I can't do anything and it is in their interest to cancel the fraudulent registration. Perhaps it is a matter of time before the police arrest all the culprits or perhaps this is a new trick they are playing?

Mehmood Khan said...

Dear TV
Each of us have to stay strong with our convictions to clean our country from such frauds.
Truth will prevail!
Best wishes and warm regards
Mehmood

T V Rao said...

November 10
I met the Deputy Director General of Stamps and Registrations. He has already summoned twice the culprits to his office on the basis of the complaint I lodged in July informing about the fraudulent registration by impersonation and forgery and requesting them to cancel the registration. Since then I met the Deputy Director thrice. The culprits did not turn up but sent their advocate. The Dy Director of Registration said that it is a departmental enquiry and therefore the persons who signed the document are needed to be present personally to enable them to verify. The culprits obviously did not turn up perhaps for the fear of getting arrested by police. He informed that due to Telengana agitation all offices were closed for the last several weeks and it is only now they have reopened. He said that he got all the documents from the various offices and will now need to call them once again and if they don’t turn up issue a notification in the newspapers. He wanted to be systematic in his approach so that the courts also cannot object when they take a decision on departmental enquiry. I was told earlier by someone that the Registrar has the power to cancel the registration in genuine cases within 90 days. I approached them within a month and they summoned the culprits twice within 60 days. Now the 90 day deadline is over for no fault of mine. I find it difficult to believe that mine is the only case that they had to handle and seem to be setting all kinds of firsts. I don’t know what more genuineness they need even when a police officer of the level of the DCP visited them and gave them the FIR copy. In the mean time they seem to have been applying and reapplying for bail. I don’t know what these people are up to. I am told that there are two ministers who may also be trying to contact the police and tried to influence them. The police apparently asked them to keep away. Some of my friends suggested me that I approach the CM or one of the Cabinet Ministers at the Centre, or Rahul Gandhi and inform them of the kind of land grabbing going on in AP. I am being told that if politicians are really involved they will wait for the transfer of the police officers handling this case and get someone in their favour posted and come up with new tricks. When I look at all this the future of the country is scaring. Is this what Mahatma, Nehru, Patel, Bose and various other leaders have fought for? What is the governance system? What is the judicial system that cannot do justice on time and waste the precious time of professionals in litigations for no fault of theirs? The only good thing in all this is that I have managed to visit IIMA and teach the course I committed to teach on Intellectual Capital. I am in possession of my house and enjoying the hundreds of custard apples the eight and odd trees in our compound have given (photo on face book. I have also managed to visit China and give key note address to the 6th Asian OD Network on the history of OD in India. I am also happy that we have been able to start the CLRD using my home as the base and have been able to mobilise a group of students from some of the local colleges to make case studies of honest people in various professionals. We have to prove that for very good and a bad officer in this country there are many honest and good people and officers in government. I hope we will succeed in making this happen. We need a lot of honest sincere and devoted professionals and workers in every place. I have begun to feel that a lot of overhauling needs to be done in our system of governance, laws and polity. I am a small man. But I do hope when a large number of such small people join together we can create a healthy society free of such evil minds and thoughts. It’s agonising to see that you have to fight for your own property which has been criminally taken away on paper by some hooligans perhaps with the support of well informed people whose business seem to be to make millions illegally. -T V Rao

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

4-12-2011
I was informed a few days ago that the second person involved in the transaction was taken to police custody. Apparently he surrendered himself. Someone from Aurora College who was called to sign the panchnama told me this. Apparently the person who surrendered confessed and gave the names of the builder who financed the deal. Who instigated who is not known and the main cri tie? The person who carried out all the deeds by creating a special power of Attorney and a GPA cum sale deed was not arrested. In the mean time I also understand that Supreme Court is considering declaring all registrations based on GPAs as not valid. I hope they enact the law soon and with retrospective effect.
I am not sure if the two people who were caught so far are in jail or out on bail. I have no information from the police. I called them so many times in the past I hesitate to keep calling them and pestering them. I am confident that they will do their job. I keep having discussion with my wife. Both of us keep feeling bad that these chaps coming from poor families have to be in jail while the main mischief makers may escape. I hope the police and the courts can get answers to a number of questions we have.
When did all this start?
Who gave them the idea to aim at my property when I am using this occasionally? Is it when the dog died?
What is the role of Meena who is care taker and her father Hariya who was staying for some time in the servant’s room in the house?
What is the role played by the employees or office bearers in the Jubilee Hills Society? I suspect someone the society has given them the duplicate copy of sale deed and not the registrar’s office?
What is the role played by the Registrars’’ office staff for this fraudulent transaction?

T. V. Rao said...

February 21, 2012
An Update

A number of well wishers from IIMA, NHRDN and other places keep enquiring about the progress on the illegal sale of my house by some miscreants. Recently even Professor Vyas who is on the Prime Minister’s Advisory council asked me as he also seems to have known it. I thank God that I am in possession of my own house today and am fighting the battle from here. If the well wisher builder had not phoned me on time in June, by now the house would have been sold to many other parties and someone else may have been staying here. I thank the builder friend and all the well wishers from IIMA and IIMC who stood by me and gave me a lot of courage and continue to give me the same. I particularly thank Mr. Ramana Murthy, IIMA alumnus. But for him I would have been a shattered individual to experience such a horrifying situation. The police have done their job and are continuing to do it well and the courts are also doing their job.

However I am concerned about the time it is taking to resolve such a clear cut issue. Justice seems to take a long time in this country and it becomes an economic burden on the country. Like delayed projects cost more, delayed decisions and delayed justice affect the confidence of people in the governance processes of the country. I have learnt a lot in this experience, of the unbelievable resource-constraints within which the police department has to work. It is unimaginable to think that Investigating officers who have to do a lot of documentation sometimes have to struggle for adequate assistance - either technological or adminstrative. If we have to build our country as a destination for others to invest in, the resource allocations, autonomy and performance incentives need to be strengthened.

I was impersonated and a special Power-of-Attorney was created and the photograph of fellow who impersonated me (an old man) is there but as he has no recorded address, they are unable to trace him. The miscreants seem to be very smart. Even with the involvement of a high level CID officer investigating the matter, the main mischief makers: the old man who impersonated me, the candidate who masterminded the whole crime (planned this over a year and executed it skillfully until it was brought to my notice) have evaded arrests by the Police. He seems to be escaping all the time and is on the run changing his places of stay and changing his mobile numbers. If he is found out ,a lot of things may get known including others who may be behind the crime and protecting him.

In the mean time the Director in-charge of Stamps and Registration informed me that they have advertised in newspapers indicating that the candidates should personally appear before them and present their view. While the Stamps and registration department said that it will not entertain any representation of the candidate and the candidates need to be present physically before them to verify their signatures etc., the criminals have even gone to the high court to prevent the Stamps department from doing their process.

Meanwhile, I keep coming and staying at Hyderabad in my house amidst my classes at IIMA and other sessions in other institutions. Needless to state, it costs time and money. I have also had to put my own house under 24 hour security!

Dr Venkat Pulla said...

Dear Professor TV Rao: I am glad the saga is over. My wife Nisha used to work in the early part of our life in a NGO called APSSS - the Andhra Pradesh Social Services Society, before joining Prof. Virmani's team in ASCI. I was at the College of Social Work, Hyderabad. A School society of its members called St Mary's Cooperative Housing Society, purchased acreage in Bowenpally next to Sarojini Pulla reddy's ( Politician) house and divided the property into plots and sold to school teachers, and professionals . Their intentions were also to build a secular colony. we paid for all the instalments and we were in our thirties- young and we were thrilled we had a plot of land- registered on her name. Few years later we built our home in Trimugherry but not on this plot. Few years later I migrated to Australia and it is in 2006 that you delivered a key note address in our strengths based practice conference in Hyderabad.
My dad in his sixties was given the power of attorney just to oversee the plot of land. He used to drive to the plot in a TVS or Luna moped. It was still not developed but some house was built.
The board called st mary’s school cooperative housing society was hanging. He did go to the plot just to see. While he was returning a goon called him and said ‘you are an elderly man, I will break your luna and your legs’ if you come again…
I raised this issue with known advocates; I raised this with young IPS colleagues. They asked me what I paid to acquire the land. I told them it was less than 50000 Rupees for less than 400 square yards of land. When I talked about this to the Registrar who signed our papers – and he still continued to be in the same position- I was told – ‘when new papers show that there is no cooperative society at all what we can do’?
I never wanted my dad’s feet to be broken nor the thought that his luna would be broken. I guess opportunistic crime is a sad commentary that confirms lack of truthful economic avocations in a country of plenty.
Yes hail Anna Hazare. But I wonder why he is that moment so small?


Dr Venkat Pulla
Social Work /Human Services
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Charles Sturt University
Locked Bag 678
Wagga Wagga NSW 2678
Phone: (02) 6933 4515
Fax: (02) 6933 2792
vpulla@csu.edu.au

Joseph George A said...

The price of democracy is Vigilance. The curse of Democracy comes from the uneducated - not necessarily from the illiterate. It is your scholarly nature that gives you the grace from this bitterness to share, so that others do not suffer your fate. It also reminds us as you note of others who may not be in a position to share the state of their fate!

Gurukul said...

Dear Rao Sir,

May GOD give you the Good Health,Strength and Courage fight with the evil society elements. I defiantly give credit to Anna Hazara Team to fight against the corruption and the Goonda Raj.

Any suggestion for your students, How to prevent this kind of frauds, Is there any way we can put an alert on the property.

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Thank you Sir for letting us know about your experiences.
Corruption is spread across society and it is high time we strive to eradicate it from its roots.
It would be great if the experiences are shared with a national media and they join our endeavour to expose those involved in such a massive scam.
It has happened with you today, and may happen with many people in the coming days.
We must fight against corruption!

Anjaneya Sharma said...

Respected Prof. T. V. Rao garu,
Good to know that you have got the property. I really hope they catch the culprits. Thanks for the detailed post as these are great lessons for me. May GOD give you Good Health, Strength and Courage to fight with these evil elements! Hope the real culprits behind the whole thing are nabbed soon…….. Wish you and your family... all the very best.
Anjaneya Sharma, Hyderabad.

anil said...

tv, i am happy that your faith in our institutions, weak and crumbled as they may appear to many, is not eroded completely, may god be with you and let all just and fair deals sustain

Varun Arya said...

Dear Prof. Rao

I am not surprised but certainly sorry that you have become victim of the rampant corruption and malpractices going on in all the areas, particularly in the real estate matters in our country. Undoubtedly such malpractices cannot succeed unless those indulging in these get blessings and protection from those who have the power to provide the same.

The country has definitely ethics, governance and system deficit. It is top downwards and not bottom up. Less said the better.

Precaution is always better than the cure! If you get into the problem, you have no choice but to fight it and persistently take it to the logical conclusion, lest you be the loser. Life is like that! Always hope for the best but also be prepared for the worst!

May the Almighty give you the strength of courage, strenth of confidence and strength of conviction to succeed in getting back what was in any case always your right.

Vijai Pandey said...

Dear Sir!

Thank you very much for sharing this. I can imagine the complications you might had to go through. It is a very informative record to warn others. Thank you very much for taking time to write it all.

Regards,
Vijai Pandey
Www.thepsychometricworld.com

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

March 5, 2012
I am not able to understand the game plan of the main person MKNR who has created SPA, GPACS and the Sale deed. He got my property registered on his name by putting up a fake T. V. Rao to create the SPA in the name of another person TN, forged my signatures and falsely registered the property in his name and even sold a part of it to another party JPB who also seem to be a part of his team. The police have not yet been able to find him as he is outsmarting them. I learnt that the police have seized his vehicle in another town and he approached the court to get it released. The court gave a decision that he could collect his vehicle personally from the police custody. He has not done that so far for fear of arrest. He keeps on applying for anticipatory bail. He applied nine times for the same: five times in the High Court and four times in the trial court. He was not granted bail. This also means he is using the legal system to suit himself. He seems to be trying his best. A few weeks ago someone called me introducing himself as a friend’s friend of MKNR and gave his name as one PK, living in Madhapur Ayappa Society and working in a local IT company as software engineer. He called me to say that MKNR is illiterate and he is very upset that he adventured to take my property. He realises his mistake and sends a message that he is prepared to cancel the registration and lead peaceful life etc. etc. I suggested that the case is now in the hands of the police and courts. The least he should do if he realises his mistake is to go and cancel the document he registered. Having sent such messages through his friend’s friend I don’t understand why he got a stay from the High court preventing the Department of Stamps and Registration from cancelling the document. One does not understand the game plan. Perhaps it will be known only when the police are able to nab him. So many people in Government are spending their time dealing with this issue. I can see how our government machinery’s time is wasted by criminal minds whose main business seems to be to take away other’s property. Now the department of Stamps and registration has to send their counsel to represent them and vacate the wit petition and allow them to do their work.
I am in Hyderabad now to get my advocate to file a counter to the writ petition he filed preventing the Government from conducting its enquiry and coming to a decision. That means the person behind the crime or perhaps the people who are directing him are up to something. Otherwise it is intriguing to see the person going to court every time and changing his lawyers every time. If he is illiterate and so poor as depicted by his friend it is obvious some people are directing him. These people also may have a criminal mind and it looks that they are professionals as the whole crime has been hatched over a year. The police have arrested four people so far who are involved in the crime including the witnesses and the main person is escaping. The witnesses told the police that MKNR is the main person who masterminded this as far as they are concerned. The police have perhaps a lot more details but the real story may come out only after the main culprit is nabbed.

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

March 5 contd..

I had to abstain from teaching in a course at IIMA this month end as the case may come up for hearing any time during the last week of the month and I should be ready to be present. I am trying to be useful to the local Professional community during my stay here at my home in Hyderabad. I visited Gitam University College today and addressed the students on Career choices. It was a pleasure to meet them. I have also participated in the ten year celebration of Husys. I am very happy to see the services being rendered by young friends at Husys for SMEs. It was a pleasure meeting the team and spending the evening with them. I also gave a keynote speech at the invitation of Professor Masood Ahmed, President of the Association of Indian management Schools to the young Professors and lecturers who are teaching in various Management schools across Andhra Pradesh and participated in a panel discussion today. I was happy to join them in honouring Sharu Rangnekar and Prof. Y. K. Bhushan, Vice Chancellor of ICFAI University last evening.
I am glad at least I am able to use my time in between my discussions with the advocates and the police. I could see that the new Investigating Officer from the CID trying his best to get the whereabouts of the MKNR from various sources. I only hope this saga will come to an end soon. I will have all my time for myself to do some better work. 
April6, 2012
Things have moved at a fast pace in the lat one month. The CID department of police have done a great job and seem to have got almost all the culprits involved. I hope we will be able to close the issue soon.
I wish to thank all the well wishers and supporters who kept giving me moral courage and emotional support all the time. The biggest support of course has been the CID, A.P. Police.

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

The story is not yet over. I am yet to get the registration cancelled. The court is yet to decide on the same. After the court gives its decision I am told I have to give it to the registrar and ask for cancellation of registration. It will take some time.

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

I was out of action since 14th when I met with a road accident on my way from the Hyderabad airport to my house in Jubilee Hills. This was one of my trips to make sure my house is protected. I planned to stay for a week
Normally I take Meru cabs whose driving speed is limited to 80 kms. That day I got into this car sent by Gitam University in Hyd for Prof. G S Gupta (IIMA) as I wanted to show him my house which has been in the news for attempted grabbing by fraudsters. Both of us arrived Amedabad that morning by IA. It was about 8.45 am when we left the airport. The driver (a private taxi- Indica) was driving at 120km and I was about to tell him to slow down, he seem to have lost balance and rammed on to the divider on the Guchibowli road from airport. I have vague recollection that he had hit a pile of stones in the middle of the divider and perhaps a pole. The next thing I remember was my getting out of the car and sitting on the wide divider road along with my colleague who was travelling with me Prof. G. S. Gupta going for a meeting at Gitam University. Then Traffic jam and a few people carrying us to a hospital in Madhapur. The driver and another faculty from Gitam were badly injured. I was not able to move my left hand and felt the damage was not too much. It was only later We found out that my shoulder joint was badly fractured and I had to be operated. There were two other minor fractures which will heal on their own. The passersby who took us to the hospital in their own cars are very helpful people from Hi-tech city and near about. They were prompt and did not wait to call for police etc. They had to break the front door open and take out the Driver and the other faculty member. I was told later that the driver did not sleep the night before.

On hearing about the accident my wife rushed to Hyderabad and both of us flew to Bangalore on 15th itself to get examined. The Doctors at Sagar hospital operated me for the fracture on 18th. I was out of the hospital on 22nd and am staying in Bangalore as my movements are restricted. Some people tell me that Hyderabad is not for me. It does not macth my stars. A number of things support this theory. Incident after incident got me pain and rarely pleasure. At one time I wanted to make HYderabad as HRD City of the country and shifted the Academy to Hyderabad. Various industrialists who promised us land
went back on their word. Finally when one of the did give the land, it was found to be disputed. We bought an acre to be on the safe side to build AHRD and even that came under dispute. Finally AHRD had to be shifted back to Ahmedabd. Now my house and then this accident. What do I make out?

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

August 2012: Update
Many friends think that my house issue is resolved and things are settled. This is far from the truth. To the best of my knowledge the culprits who were arrested are on Bail. The CID team has to do a thorough a job to ascertain the extent to which those who were caught made correct statements. Recently two of the senior officers from Hyderabad even visited Ahmedabad to check the places of stay etc. of the culprits. As mentioned earlier two of the culprits visited Ahmedabad before they committed the crime to study how I look like etc. so that they could arrange for my impersonation. The police apparently had to check their story.
Accident: In the mean time during one of my trips to Hyderabad in May I met with an accident and broke my shoulder joint due to a negligent taxi driver who dosed off while driving us from the airport at a high speed and dashed on to the divider on May 14th. This resulted in throwing me totally out of gear and I had to be in the hospital for over a week and they had to operate me and also fit a titanium plate in my shoulder joint. I feel when I claim the damages from the culprits I msut add the economic loss during the last one year due to disturbances in my work besides the hospitalisation charges for the accident. It is over ten weeks by now and I am still recovering.
In the mean time I have given a part of my house on rent to “Atlanta Foundation” who work of educational matters.
Recently I am told by the CID that their investigation is near complete and in a matter a couple of weeks they will take up the issues. My office started getting telephone calls from one of the culprits wanting to talk to me and come to a compromise. I donot understand what is there to talk as the cases are in courts and matter has to be settled by the courts. I am told in the civil court the proceeding s are almost complete but the judge is taking time to make corrections in the final order. The judges must be having thousands of cases. Apparently over 20 million cases in the country are pending in the courts. One can understand how much stressed the judges are. Otherwise it is strange that in a straight forward case like this the judge needs several months to sign to correct the order and sign the papers even after he delivered the judgement. For the last four months most of the time I keep calling up my advocates to check if the judge has been able to sign the papers after the judgement was delivered already several months ago. This certainly explains the pressures under which the judiciary is working and the extent to which justice may be getting delayed for millions of cases due to Judicial manpower shortage and other pressures of work.
I am hoping that the issue will be settled soon and justice will be done and I can relax to continue to serve others better than before.

Dr. IVNS Raju said...

Dear Dr. TVR,
I am surprised to note about your accident, while I am not surprised about the delay in delivering the justice to you.

God had already delivered his justice by saving you from the major one as He needs you to serve your clients better - as you said.

Wish you more energy.
warm regards
IVNS Raju 99482 95353

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

Update September 34, 2012
I was very happy when I was called by my advocate and told that the City Civil Court Judge has given finally his order cancelling the fraudulent GPA and sale deeds created to sell the house. Immediately I rushed to Hyderabad and collected copies of the judgement and handed them over to the Sub Registrar with a request to cancel the documents and restore the property in my name (13-8-2012). The Sub Registrar said that he needs five working days to study the court order (which is seven pages) and cancel the documents. Since then every alternate day I have been calling up the joint sub-registrar to find the status. Till date the documents have not been cancelled. One day the person is on leave, another day the computers don't work and another day the computers need to be fed information.. and so on. There seem to be some reluctance to do their job. The same office that has done the registration in 24 hours without any verification of the property and its ownership a year ago for fraudsters is taking over three weeks to cancel the documents. As my classes at IIM are getting to start and I have to be in Ahmedabad I am not able to physically be present and pursue the matter at Hyderabad. It is amazing that even the court order takes time to implement but fraudsters had their way and easily usurped the property in a matter of few days. I have spent so far over Rs 20 lakhs for this purpose: Rs 6 L for court fee another 6 L for Advocates at various points of time, 3 L for security including bouncers employed in the initial stages of discovery, and another 5 L for travel and for hospitals w.r.t. my accident. This is besides the opportunity lost for doing my work and other income loss. The Sate of AP also spent their time specially the CID Police and also the Registration Department in investigating the case etc. Corruption costs heavily due to carelessness of those who are to do their duty while registering fraudulent documents. Their carelessness is reflected even now when court orders don't get executed on time after all this!!!.

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

The story continues. My problems are not over. I kept writing to the Sub Registrar with no acknowledgement or reply. Finally they issued a Encumberance certificate which was not clear. Finally I had to take it up with the Dy. Inspector General of Stamps. The enclosed letter gives some details.
September 27, 2012
To: Dy Inspector General,
Stamps and Registration
Hyderabad

Dear Sir:

I am enclosing the Encumbrance certificate I received from the Sub registrar (SRO Banjara Hills-Erragadda). It is very unclear. It does not mention the cancellation of the Document No 1932 of June 26, 2011 which is clearly mentioned in the judgement. It only mentions the cancellation of Document 1923 dated 25-6-2011.

2. It does not say that the house is originally registered in the name of Talam Venkateswara Rao and also does not clearly state the current incumbency. It cancels some other document 1604. I am not sure what this document is.


3. I am told by some of the property agents with this encumbrance no one will understand that the property is restored back to me.

Any help from you to sort this out will be greatly appreciated. I am sorry to trouble you and I have no where else to go even after the court decision. I would appreciate if corrected documents showing the property in my name as the fraudulent documents have been cancelled will be the most appropriate correction your department can make to the damage done.

I will be happy to come as soon as my classes at IIMA are over if necessary to get this cleared.
Thank you very much sir for your help and concern.

Warm Regards


Talam Venkateswara Rao

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

On 27th I had to visit Hyderabad Registrar's office to sort out the matter. If the Court order has not been followed properly and the documents not cancelled, I could approach the court on contempt of court by the Registrar office. Fortunately I did not have to do it. The Dy. Inspector General of Stamps currently handling my case is an excellent human being. He mentioned to me that he is very sorry that a Professor has to undergo so much agony. He acknowledged that his office have goofed up in carrying out the necessary documentation. He showed me the rules which required the way the court order has to be carried out and how his officers goofed up. Apparently the cancellation order has to be mentioned against the documents previously registered. He mentioned that recently the Govt of AP have shifted all issuance of ECs through "meeseva". Meesseva is being operated by private parties. They issue certificates after getting verification by the concerned officers. This delays the entire process. The changes to be made is not anymore in his hands unlike in the past. He had to go to NIC who maintain the central architecture of issuance certificates, and carried out the necessary modifications so as to enable the department in future also to enter such court orders in the Meeseva services. The officer and the officers at the NIC wee extremely helpful in carrying out the corrections and incorporating the changes for future use by the department.
I went in the morning and returned in the evening as I have classes at IIMA the next day. The corrections have been made and the court order has been carried out with required notings against the fraudulant registration carried out by the registrar's office. I am now hoping to get the final EC in the next few days.

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

Update on October 3, 2012
I keep thinking that with the court order my problems are over. This seems to be only a fond hope. My experiences narrated in these blogs speak a lot about the country in which we live and the way things go on. I am therefore taking pains for the future administrators, governance and others involved in nation Building.
The following letter (blog version) written to the ADG, CID Police explain and update the events:
03-10-2012
Hello sir. This is just to update you with the current situation.

1. The Dy. Inspector General of stamps and Registration has got the cancellation order inserted in the registration documents last week. I am waiting to get the Encumbrance Certificate.

2. In the mean time my advocate's assistant from Hyderabad called me to say that the FIR squash petition is coming up for hearing and the Public Prosecutor did not have any instructions from the CID to work on it. This petition was filed by them in January. I am a little surprised about this development as I thought that the case is in its advanced stages. I spoke to the officer concerned in the CID. He assured me that I don't have to worry. He also mentioned that the charge sheet is being filed and is waiting higher officer's approval.

I hope after all the work done by the CID, this does not get squashed on procedural grounds as it may then be used by the Fraudstars to crate more mischief.

Warm Regards
T V Rao
Some one mentioned that they always look for loopholes in the system and bring up the case at a time when everything seems to be over and catch you unaware. As the courts go by arguments at that time and may not be aware of the full details, they may even take an action and the culprits may find their way to escape.

I don't know if the confusion is created by the over enthusiastic advocate or there is a lapse on the part of the investigating team.
I thought that it is now for the police to continue and I did not have to take the help of any advocate. I am not sure if I continue to spend any more money, time and energy on this case.
Any advice from my blog readers will help.
Thanks

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

I was attending a seminar on Service Delivery at the AMA on 2nd October. N Vittal, Mr Laheri, P N Khandwalla spoke. The use of IT in good governance and improving the speed of service delivery were being discussed. My colleague Pradip Khandwalla is happy that one of his recommendations in agencification has been accepted by the Govt. No doubt IT helps improve good governance - provided government makes right policies.

I remembered the experience I had just last week with the Encumbrance Certificate for my property. Earlier the CC used to be given on the same day by the registrar's office on payment of Rs 120. Now you have to pay the amount in meeseva. Then they get the certificate verified by the Registrar's office and give it after 3 to 4 days. The money goes to the agency (The IT Company) and the customer gets his certificate after four days. I hope this is not what we mean by improving the service delivery through IT and agencification?
"OH MY GOD" Paresh Raval should take out his next film on agencification in the Government for Good Governance. Government loses money, agency gets it, customer gets delay and govt. levies more taxes to fill the deficit???

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

November 14, 2012
Deepavali and New Year Day. At last I spent a peaceful day at home in Ahmedabad. I now have the new Encumbrance Certificate cancelling the fraudulant registration done by Tirupathi Naidu, Mahankali Nagaraju and others. I understand Tirupathi Naidu keeps calling my office every now and then wanting to talk to me and apologize. I brought this to the notice of the CID concerned. They advised me that there is nothing I can do as the matter is in the court and investigations are going on. They also said that the charge sheet is being filed soon.
T V Rao

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

Tines of India, 28th December, 2012
In the Indian criminal justice system, major crimes are likely to remain unreported. If reported, frequently not registered. If registered, the true perpetrator not found: if found, not charged; if charged, usually not convicted; if convicted frequently not adequately punished. At each stage the system has enough loopholes and inefficiencies to allow the guilty to walk away with impunity." Abhishek Singhvi Chairman Parliamentary Committee on law and justice. It is 18 over 19 months since the crime was committed and a year since most of the culprits were arrested and released on bail. Till date to the best of my knowledge the charge sheeted is still being prepared. There have been many transfers in police. Many senior officers have handled the case thanks to the support of the top brass. It is said the civil court's decision to decision to cancel the fraudulent registration is one of the fastest. I am happy that the property is safe and with me - Thanks to the help and support of Police and the law.

Unknown said...

Dear prof.Rao:
I read with deep interest your brave fight against unscrupulous goons and our inertia filled bureaucracy to retain what is your own property!
We had faced a similar situation where our property was sold to multiple persons after the fraudsters forged my wife's signature and affixed a photo of some other woman. The GPA that was created was full of holes but had some pretty accurate information such as the fact that we are living in the United States, etc., We are still fighting it out in the courts.

Unfortunately there is precious little that one can learn from our experiences that would help prevent such incidents from happening. Is there anything at all that one could do proactively? Perhaps pledge the property to a Bank?

You were fortunate in that you came to know of the fraud before the thugs had occupied the house; even more so when you escaped from your road accident. You were also fortunate that you had good people to help you at every step of the way. To that extent, I think that Hyderabad is indeed a good place for you to settle down! The law of averages is also on your side that such things might not happen to you in Hyderabad in the future!

We also realized that the system is extremely corrupt and one has to pay people like the police, sub-registrar etc., to actually DO their duty! One would think that bribes are taken by officials for dereliction of their duties to unduly benefit someone!

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

Am happy to write that the deputy inspector General of Stamps and Registration has after a careful examination of the case has come to the conclusion that the property has been fraudulantly registered and has directed the cancellation of the fraudulant registration. ON receiving his order I called to thank the Deputy Registrar and asked if his order is necessary after the court order. He said that it is his duty to do this to prevent further mischief by the fraudsters. Thank you very much sir.

anil said...

congratulations, what a struggle just to retains what was yours to begin with. but what about punishment to dishonest staff and fraudsters?

anil
inters

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

Received a letter from hte Director of Income Tax (Intelligence) Hyderabad stating that .. "you have entered into a high value financial transactions during the financial year 2011-12 without quoting your PAN. etc.
I am going to write to them that this was fraudulant transaction entered into some third party without my knowledge and impersonating me and giving my PAN etc. I am glad the IT department is working and I hope they have sent similar notices to all those who were involved in the transaction.

Anonymous said...

I have started an online petition against land grabbing and requesting to ease the process of restoration of grabbed lands. Kindly provide me with your valuable support.
Following is the link :
https://www.change.org/p/honorable-prime-minister-of-india-mr-narendra-modi-request-to-ease-the-process-of-restoring-grabbed-lands-kindly-help-safeguard-our-lands-secure-our-investments-and-let-the-justice-prevail

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

Septemebr 29, 2015
Last night I got a call from some one from the Jubilee Hills Society claimed to be one Mr. Krishanmurthy and Damodar Reddy secretary of the association. They called me at my Ahmedaabd residence number. I donot know how they got my Ahmedabad telephone number. They were enquiring that the Society elections are going to take place and they called to enquire if I can propose Damodar Reddy for an office bearers . Even before I completed that I am not likley to be there next few days, they cut short the conversation. When I called back there was no one to respond. It occured to me that the entire fraud could not have taken place without some one in the Society being involved. The criminal case is still going on. I started suspecting somethign is not right. I called the inspector from CID who attends the court on behalf of the CID. I was informed by him that the case was posted for 28th Septemebr (yesterday) and three people did not turn up and the case was posted for a later date. I still can't figure out why some one in the Society wants my support as I ahrdly met them once when the fraud was discovered. I have to solve the mystery. T V Rao

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

Septemebr 29, 2015
Last night I got a call from some one from the Jubilee Hills Society claimed to be one Mr. Krishanmurthy and Damodar Reddy secretary of the association. They called me at my Ahmedaabd residence number. I donot know how they got my Ahmedabad telephone number. They were enquiring that the Society elections are going to take place and they called to enquire if I can propose Damodar Reddy for an office bearers . Even before I completed that I am not likley to be there next few days, they cut short the conversation. When I called back there was no one to respond. It occured to me that the entire fraud could not have taken place without some one in the Society being involved. The criminal case is still going on. I started suspecting somethign is not right. I called the inspector from CID who attends the court on behalf of the CID. I was informed by him that the case was posted for 28th Septemebr (yesterday) and three people did not turn up and the case was posted for a later date. I still can't figure out why some one in the Society wants my support as I ahrdly met them once when the fraud was discovered. I have to solve the mystery.

Anonymous said...

Sir, Any updates on this? We have just discovered that our plot has been registered to someone else fraudently.

Hari said...

Prof. Rao, we are really sorry that someone like you - an esteemed professor as you and a rightful owner had to go through all this. But really glad to see success stories that gives us hope.

My family is currently going through a similar issue wherein a elected MLA is trying to grab our land. We have tried use our police to stop the trespassers but the hands of police are tied as they are pressured by the MLA. Any suggestions/recommendations you have on how to tackle this would be appreciated.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Prof. T. V. Rao said...

Almost six years have passed. I have given my house on rent for a while mainly to protect it from any more such attempts by goons. Whenever my house issue comes up my Blood Pressure goes up. In this journey Mr. Ramana Murthy, IPS and Mr. Krishna Prasad, IPS both Alumni of IIMA have been a great source of strength. But for Ramana Murthy garu, I would not have got the house back. Every teachers day besides those who taught me, I remember the Alumni of IIMA whom I may or may not have taught. They have shown great affection and respect. As age is not on my side, I am slowly giving up the idea of starting a Leadership Center at Hyderabad House. As I am trying to sell, some one told me that it is listed among the properties prohibited to sell by the Registrar of Stamps. As the Office of the Dy. Inspector general of Stamps and registration has already issued me a order confirming my ownership and permission to use and sell etc. I am surprised at this. This is perhaps in response to the stay I got from City Civil court in 2011 Septemebr when the fraudulent registration happened. The sub-registrar office does not seem to have updated their records. Some more paper work perhaps need to be done. The news that it is listed as prohibited to sell is certainly reassuring as it indicates that the property is safe!

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

To: ADG- CID, Telengana

From: Prof. T. V. Rao

Sub: Cr. No. 35/11 and CC No: 210/213 in VI ACMM Nampally



Dear Sir:

This is regarding a criminal case filed by CID for which I along with my wife and daughter are called as key witnesses by the Criminal Court, Nampally. C. I. D have put in a lot of effort to nab the criminals who impersonated, forged signatures and illegally stole a high value property in Jubilee Hills in the year 2011.

I live in Ahmedabad along with my wife . My daughter Nandini Chawla lives in Bangalore.

1. This case filed by the CID in which some criminals were arrested came up for hearing on 3/10/2017 for which my wife along with me were summoned to give evidence. We spent the full day in the court waiting for our statement to be taken. The evidence was not taken as they wanted to cross-examine the two of us along with my daughter who was also listed as a witness and we were asked to come again 31/10/2017.

2. On 31/10/2017: All three of us went and spent the full day in the court and only my statement was taken and as some administrative lapses were found the honorable Judge postponed further evidence until they were sorted out and missing documentation completed

3. On 17/12/2017: I visited the PP and handed over some additional documents as requested by the PP and CID

4. On 4/06/2018: I and my wife attended the court again for the full day as summons were served asking me only to attended and give evidence, the honorable Judge fixed the date for 17/7/2018 again as she wanted all three of us from my family to be examined as requested by Defense lawyers

5. On 17/07/2018: All three of us went to the court and spent the full day to be told that CID "had indicated to the court that we are not coming" and the investigating officer was not present to put up the case. We waited for the full day and at 4.00 PM the honorable Judge directed us to give a written complaint on the investigating officer. This was upsetting to say the least as CID has done such good work on this case, but we had no alternative as the honorable Judge insisted that we write a complaint and even indicated the content. The investigating officer came when we were about to leave for the airport and we had to leave the court in a hurry to catch flight for my daughter.

6. On 6/07/2018: we had a telephone call from CID enquiring if we are coming to give evidence as the hearing was scheduled on 7/07/2018. We were taken by surprise as we had no intimation nor summons. We were told that the date was perhaps given by the judge after we left, and we had no intimation.

7. On 7/07/2018: We are given summons now fixing the next hearing as 29/07/2018.

8. On 29/07?2018 I was teaching in Bangkok in a Doctoral Program of Assumption University and booked my tickets to reach from Bangkok to Hyderabad on 28th. When I was about to leave from bangkok, I was informed that the honourable Judge is going to be on leave and I need not come. However due to last minute information I could not change my tickets and both I and my wife came to Hyderabad to be present in the court on 29th. My daughter Ms. Nandini cancelled her ticket with a small refund of her fare. The hearing did not take place and later we were informed that the enxt hearing is fixed for 28th September.

Prof. T. V. Rao said...

9. On 28/09/2018: I had a IIMA Board meeting on that day and the meeting was fixed several months in advance. I sent the Board meeting intimation from IIMA to Public Prosecutor and requested her to inform the honourable judge that we can come only after Deepavali due to travel plans of the three of us. We requested the PP to take a date after 6th Novemebr. However we got an intimation that the enxt hearing is fixed from 18th October in spite of our request to do so after Novemebr.

10. On 18/10/2018 We are not sure if we have to change our commitments already made and attend to the court. The past experience shoes that this could be postponed again even if we put in effort to change out plans and make sure to be there. We are also worried that we are not able to make it for 18th.

Every time we must travel from Ahmedabad and as senior citizens ( 72 years and 67) it inconveniences and adds to our health problems. We have indicated this to the PP also repeatedly. So far we made seven trips. My daughter Nandini Chawla has to travel from Bangalore and she holds a responsible job and also has family responsibilities. It becomes difficult for her to reschedule her work every time.

As responsible citizens we definitely want to provide the best support to CID but some better coordination form CID side would help enormously. We always got ample support from our IIMA Alumni Shri Ramana Murthy Garu and Shri Krishna Prasad Garu during their stint as ADG CID.

We are grateful to CID for the effort put in to bring to book the criminals and we hope your effort and good work does not get wasted for some procedural lapses. We assure you once again our full cooperation. We request to impress on the PP and the honourable Judge to help us minimise our travel by completing the process in the next hearing on a day all three of us can attend.

Thank you

Sincerely9. On 28/09/2018: I had a IIMA Board meeting on that day and the meeting was fixed several months in advance. I sent the Board meeting intimation from IIMA to Public Prosecutor and requested her to inform the honourable judge that we can come only after Deepavali due to travel plans of the three of us. We requested the PP to take a date after 6th Novemebr. However we got an intimation that the enxt hearing is fixed from 18th October in spite of our request to do so after Novemebr.

10. On 18/10/2018 We are not sure if we have to change our commitments already made and attend to the court. The past experience shoes that this could be postponed again even if we put in effort to change out plans and make sure to be there. We are also worried that we are not able to make it for 18th.

Every time we must travel from Ahmedabad and as senior citizens ( 72 years and 67) it inconveniences and adds to our health problems. We have indicated this to the PP also repeatedly. So far we made seven trips. My daughter Nandini Chawla has to travel from Bangalore and she holds a responsible job and also has family responsibilities. It becomes difficult for her to reschedule her work every time.

As responsible citizens we definitely want to provide the best support to CID but some better coordination form CID side would help enormously. We always got ample support from our IIMA Alumni Shri Ramana Murthy Garu and Shri Krishna Prasad Garu during their stint as ADG CID.

We are grateful to CID for the effort put in to bring to book the criminals and we hope your effort and good work does not get wasted for some procedural lapses. We assure you once again our full cooperation. We request to impress on the PP and the honourable Judge to help us minimise our travel by completing the process in the next hearing on a day all three of us can attend.

Thank you

Sincerely

Prof. T. V. Rao

Prof. T. V. Rao