A shocking case of land fraud has surfaced in Sambalpur, where Sub-Registrar Surya Narayan Samal has been arrested for allegedly selling a deceased person’s land by forging records to portray him as alive. The fraudulent transaction led to multiple sales of the same property, exposing a major scam.
The 21-decimal plot, located in Budharaja, Sambalpur, belonged to the family of Binod Gupta, who had passed away some time ago. However, Samal allegedly manipulated documents to falsely show that Gupta was still alive and facilitated the sale of the land to Venkata Balaji Patra and Sujit Patra from Bhubaneswar.
Months later, the Patra brothers resold the land to Shyama Trading, transferring ownership to Sumit Das and Chiranjeevi Guru of Sambalpur. This second sale triggered alarm, ultimately leading to the exposure of the scam.
The original landowner’s family remained unaware of the transactions until Sumit Das and Chiranjeevi Guru attempted to take possession of the land. Realizing the fraudulent sale, they promptly lodged a police complaint at the Town police station.
In a surprising turn, Sub-Registrar Samal also filed a police complaint, alleging that the Patra brothers were threatening him. Acting on his complaint, police arrested Venkata Balaji and Sujit Patra.
As the investigation progressed, authorities arrested Sub-Registrar Samal, along with two alleged accomplices, Sriranjan Pattnaik and Chandra Prasad Dungura. A senior Inspector-rank officer has now been assigned to probe the full extent of the scam.
