Man sentenced to 10 years for land fraud

An accountability court on Thursday sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for committing a fraud of Rs430 million by registering government land in the name of two dead persons and then selling it.

The accountability court-III judge Dr Sher Bano Karim convincted the accused, Muhammad Ilyas, for the offence and also slapped a fine of Rs430 million to recover the money. According to the prosecution, Ilyas prepared fictitious entries in documents for an over-21-acre piece of land in Karachi in connivance with two revenue officials and sold it to private persons, Arif Rogatia and Khursheed Alam.

Special Public Prosecutor Zahid Hussain Baladi argued that the accused got prepared a fake general power attorney on September 1, 2004, in the name of Lal Bai, who had died on May 18, 2000, by using her expired national ID card in respect of the land situated in Deh Safooran, Tapo Songal, Karachi.

Baladi added that the accused had got prepared such fake power of attorney in his name and then fraudulently obtained a bogus NOC for the sale of the subject land in connivance with Khadim Hussain Kutrio, then mukhtiarkar (revenue) Malir.

The land was then sold to Khan and Rogatia as then Mukhtiarkar Malir Mushtaq Ali Solangi verified the bogus NOC and fake entries in the revenue record.

The fraud was caught by then executive district officer (revenue) Karachi and he had cancelled the land transferred in the names of Khan and Rogatia. The two co-accused Mukhtiarkars were convicted earlier but Ilyas was absconding at that time.