SCAMSTERS INC.

Within a fortnight of expressing concern over privatisation of education and grant of affiliation to professional colleges by
regulators without following the guidelines, the Supreme Court on Monday stumbled upon a similar scam
pertaining to private law colleges.

A vacation Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A K Ganguly felt that the problem was much larger than the case pertaining to a private law college in Madhya Pradesh and appointed a high-level probe team headed by Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam and comprising Supreme Court Bar Association president M N Krishnamani to go into the root of the problem.

The issue came under the court's scanner after the Bar Council of India challenged the MP High Court's order directing fresh inspection of Bonnie Foi Law College at Bhopal by two advocates saying it alone was statutorily mandated to inspect law colleges seeking affiliation.

"The issue is much larger," said the Bench and permitted the committee to take assistance of legal experts and academicians in its endeavour to get to the root of the problem concerning private law colleges.

The Bench said it has knowledge of law colleges in Mumbai operating from two-room set-ups and was critical of the manner in which BCI granted affiliation to private law colleges.

Refusing to place much weight on the report of BCI, the Bench said: "This is not the way inspection is to be carried out. It's a matter of common knowledge that before granting affiliation, proper exercise is to be carried out about faculty, infrastructure, library, etc. It is also necessary whether requisite number of faculty members are employed by the college and whether they are granted minimum pay-scale recommended by the Fifth and the Sixth Pay Commissions.

Slamming the BCI, the Bench said: "They (BCI) do not know what to inspect. The BCI report of inspection is very perfunctory. Those in the BCI, we are very sorry to say this, are not quite aware that the legal education cell within BCI dealing with grant of affiliation is headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and a high court judge to assist him."

Subramanium agreed with the Bench that there was a serious dearth of modern technical apparatus, efficient stock of foreign literature on developing laws and suggested a thorough scrutiny of private law colleges prior to grant of affiliation.

In the case of Bonnie Foi Law College, the court directed two members of BCI to conduct a fresh inspection along with two independent members, director of the National Judicial Academy (Bhopal) and NL Mitra, former vice-chancellor of the National Law University in Bangalore.

Source:TOI

Think twice, or more, before you hand over those land records to brokers. It could get you into trouble as the land could be sold for lakhs without you even getting a whiff of the deal.

Senior CCB police perssonnel state that a number of such cases are registered, and the loopholes in the system make it easy for frauds to escape and continue with such cases. And the innocent victims end up paying the price. On Monday, a 45-year-old man was driven to commit suicide at the Sampigehalli police station limits as he had fallen prey to one such trick.

As land value in Bangalore has shot up in the recent past, making money by producing fake land documents have become easy and common. Also, a number of banks eagerly come forward to provide loans without feeling the need to verify the documents.

Many bank officials, before giving away the loan, fail to check with neighbours as to who is the real owner of the land. Police say that such cases are commonly reported and lack of stringent rules has lead to the rise in such crimes. Quoting the crores of loss by the Vini vinc scam, CCB Inspector SK Umesh said, “Such cases have shot up, and unfortunately, the victims are still unaware of being cheated.

Police investigations to trace the culprit themselves cost lakhs, but they easily get released on bail.” These cases are booked under section 420 for cheating and 468 for forgery. However, when an accused is arrested under these charges, they can be released on bail by paying a surety of Rs 5,000.

Even the courts come across such cases.

A number of fake documents come before the court and when suspicions arise, they are sent to the FSL. After the verification and a confirmation that they are fake documents, an enquiry is ordered. Senior officials say that unless even the court takes these cases separately and strictly, it is not possible to curb or stop such incidents from happening.

There are close to 200 cheating cases registered in the city every month. These cases include such fake land grabbing incidents and are treated on the lines of other petty cheating cases. Unless such cases are considered separately as land grabbing, it is difficult to put a check.

Capital Crime

On Monday morning, 45-year-old Venkatesh, a resident of Agrahara Layout in Sampigehalli committed suicide when his wife was away to buy milk.

Sampigehalli ACP Ramachandrappa, said, “Venkatesh is from a very poor family and had an inherited property. He was in need of money and so had planned to sell the same and had given the photocopy of his land documents to a land dealer.

However, it was in the year 2006 that he came to know that a loan of Rs 8 lakh was availed on his property without his knowledge by the brokers. He lodged a case at Chikajala police station and it was transferred to Sampigehalli police station this year in February. Though the police enquiry was going on, unable to face the pressure by bank officials who demanded him to pay the money, he committed suicide on Monday morning.” The brokers including Kiran, Ravi, Siddanegowda and others have allegedly prepared fake land documents and by claiming that someone else was Venkatesh, had availed the loan. A case was registered at Sampigehalli police station and investigations are going on.

Source:Express Buzz

After the infamous Viniv Inc scam, Bangalore police busted two gangs who were running “profit-sharing’’ companies, Info Science and Icons, and had cheated investors of Rs 25 crore.

The accused had advertised that if investors paid Rs 50,000, the company, which is located in Banashankari, will buy computers and rent them out. Investors would get the rent of Rs 4,000 to 6,000 a month as profit. For women and senior citizens, they had promised returns of Rs 3,500 for a deposit of Rs 50,000. Initially, they paid the interest promptly and after gaining investors’ confidence, they disappeared.

The company’s managing director, H R Prabhakar had raked in about Rs 25 crore and escaped on March 23. When the company shut down, investors lodged cases at Chennammanakere Achkat, Magadi Road and Girinagar police stations against Prabhakar, general manager B N Radhamani, director and share holders H R Venkatesh Prasad and H R Anand. On collecting information, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths found that Prabhakar had taken shelter in America.

They forced him to return to Bnagalore and arrested him and his associates by laying a trap.

The company had branches at Rajajinagar and Mumbai and advertised in newspapers and on the internet. They had bought six sites at Krishnarajapuram and Seegehalli costing upto Rs 1 crore, two cars worth about Rs 23 lakh, computers, laptops and other goods worth Rs 2 crore.

Source: Express Buzz

An engineering graduate
lodged a complaint with the Nandambakkam police station on Wednesday saying that a person had cheated him of
over Rs 81,000 with the promise of a job in a private company.

According to the complaint from Sivarajan of Iswaran Koil Street in Nandambakkam, he was searching for a job some months ago when he met T Ganesan, a retired official of a public sector bank.

The latter then introduced him to Srikanth of a private company. Srikanth assured him that he would get him a job and asked him to pay some money.

Sivarajan, who was keen on gettting a job, said he would pay the amount on an instalment basis, and, in the last six months, he paid Rs 81,000. Then he lost contact with Srikanth and did not get the interview call either.

When Sivarajan asked Ganesan about Srikanth's whereabouts, he was told that Srikanth had to pay him some money too.

Sivarajan then approached the police who registered a case and began investigations. A senior police officer with the Chennai suburban commissionerate said that atleast one job cheating case was registered every month.

"There are lot of engineering graduates who are without a job. Hence, scamsters make use of such people and cheat them. It is always better to enquire about the person who offers to get a job," said the police officer.

Source:TOI

Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde, who has expressed his displeasure at the lack of interest being shown by the state government towards the implementation of the report submitted by him about illegal mining activity in the state, has decided to write to the state government, seeking details of the steps it has taken in relation to the said report.

This will be the final letter the Lokayukta would be addressing to the state government, seeking to know as to whether the state is committed to accept the report and implement the report in Toto or does it propose to reject it. The Lokayukta, after waiting for the response of the state about its stand on the report, will directly report to the state governor.

At the time the report was submitted, the Lokayukta had sought action to be taken within three months. The chief secretary, who met the Lokayukta later, had sought extra time in view of the election. The Lokayukta said, it has been six months since the report was submitted and the elections passed two months ago. "The Lokayukta does not have any information other than that a committee was being formed under the presidentship of the additional secretary of the government. We are in the dark as to what further action was taken or is being taken," Hegde said.

Source:daijiworld

A MAN accused of swindling Bahrain-based Indian investors out of around BD20 million in bogus land deals has been arrested.Dozens of Indians living in Bahrain have reportedly filed police complaints in India against Crowne Plaza International Hotels and Resorts owner Joseph Chacko.

The company is based in Bangalore and has nothing to do with the Crowne Plaza Bahrain. Chacko is accused of selling apartments and plots of land to expatriate Indians all over the Gulf, then selling them on without telling them. The businessman, originally from Kerala, but settled in Bangalore, is also accused of duping poor Indians back home into giving him power of attorney to sell their land - then never paying them.

Apartment owners claim they were never given the proper ownership documents. Chacko allegedly cheated non-resident Indians (NRIs) around the Gulf out of around BD50 million over the past 10 years. Investors claim that at least BD20 million was collected from Bahrain, but that many investors are reluctant to come forward.

Chacko was arrested on Wednesday at Kolkata International Airport by the City Crime Branch (CCB) Bangalore and has been remanded in police custody until next Monday for further investigation. Bangalore police are interrogating him about alleged fraud, following nearly 40 complaints registered in various police stations in the city.

Chacko had first come to Bahrain in 1999 to market properties and then re-visited several times until 2003, said a Bahrain-based investor, who did not want to be named. "Though the property is presently in our control, we are still to get all the deeds and documents, including the parent deed from Mr Chacko for our property," he said. "We have been requesting him for this for several years and the last time I spoke to him was around five months ago. "Unless we get all the documents, there is always risk of our property being encroached by others.

"Now there is hope that things will be sorted out."

It is understood Chacko moved from India to Kuwait in 1995 and became an NRI. He began developing several residential layouts in Bangalore exclusively for NRIs across the Gulf, the UK, the US, South Africa and elsewhere, said sources. It is thought that there are other investors in Bahrain who have not come forward to complain.

"We have been advertising on and off for people in Bahrain who have been duped by this person to join hands so that we could all move together," said one investor, who would not be named.

"But we have not been completely successful. So far we have been able to get about 20 people from Bahrain, but there are more and they are not willing to come forward for several reasons."

He said many more investors were complaining in private, but were not joining the petition to officially file their cases.

Investors in Bahrain who have not yet joined the group can contact on 39672230 or 17628481.

Source: Gulf Daily News

Recently, a few gullible customers gathered at the Press Club alleging that there were cheated by Orange Properties. They claimed that they were taken for a ride by the attractive hoardings and advertisements published in national dailies a few months ago.

According to them, there was no dearth of sales executives of that land developer
to collect money from them but the promised sites never turned up.It may not be an exaggeration to say that their allegation is not an isolated case in Bangalore.These victims of a real-estate bust were at least able to come together to expose a racket of that land developer.

But how many among us can actually raise our voice against greedy land developers? It was not long ago that a land developer-cum-hero Yogeshwar faced similar problems. It may be recalled that Yogeshwar launched the Megacity project more than a decade ago. Ishwarya Rai was the chief guest at a function organised at the Bangalore Palace. Impressed by the show of the Megacity project, many people paid the company promoted by Yogeshwar. Many of them neither got housing sites nor their money from him. It will be a herculean task for a middle-class retired person to get back his/her money from the land developer. “It is impossible to fight against him.

He was elected as MLA from Channapatna.

They keep on telling me that I will get the site whenever I visited their office. I cannot visit their office any more. I am leaving it to the God,’’ says P G Srinivasamurthy (name changed), one of the victims.

There are many people who have been repenting their decision of buying sites at places such as Krishnarajapuram, Devasandra, Ramamurthynagar, Kaggadasapura, A Narayanapura. These areas were under the jurisdictions of KR Puram and Mahadevarapura CMCs. There were occasions where a realtor and land-lord joined hands and sold one site to more than three to four buyers with active support from corrupt officials at the respective subregistrar offices. A few of the realtors have joined political parties and even got elected as councillors.

After becoming elected representatives, these realtors get full support from the local police stations.

“I purchased the site a few years ago. One of the realtors of B Narayanapura had even collected 2 per cent of the site cost as commission for introducing me to the land-owner. Now, both of them have joined hands and are demanding more money from me claiming that the registration of the site is not valid since the landowner’s son had not signed on the registration document. I have no option left,’’ said Ramanaiah of Akashnagar.

Recently, one land developer formed a Layout near KR Puram and sold sites only to buyers from neighbouring states. After a few months, he formed one more Layout on the same land by applying a few changes and modifications to the existing layout plan. Surprisingly, he succeeded in selling all the sites within a short span.

One of the buyers is a priest from Tirupati. The priest was shocked when he failed to locate his site in the layout where site numbers and road plans were changed several times and sold to many people.

A word of caution

One has to be very careful and must verify whether the land developer has availed of the necessary approval from the authorities concerned to form the layout.

There is no dearth of corrupt officials among the employees at the concerned offices who could collude with land developers to create fake approval letters.

So think twice before investing in those attractive offers. It would be prudent to visit the authorities concerned to verify whether the layout has the approval or not.

It may not be an exaggeration to say that their allegation is not an isolated case in Bangalore. These victims of a real-estate bust were at least able to come together to expose a racket of that land developer.

But how many among us can actually raise our voice against greedy land developers? Recently, one land developer formed a Layout near KR Puram and sold sites only to buyers from neighbouring states. After a few months, he formed one more Layout on the same land by applying a few changes and modifications.

He succeeded in selling all the sites within a short span..

Source: Express Buzz