Hyderabad: Nearly 22,000 ‘anomalies’ were reportedly found during a forensic audit of eight lakh Dharani (land) transactions between Oct 2020 and Dec 2024. However, the state govt is clueless about the officers and the persons behind those transactions, which involved nearly 10,000 acres.Kerala Security Audit and Assurance Centre (KSAAC), which carried out the audit of the land transactions, found anomalies and suspected transactions, but failed to get any concrete evidence against officers responsible, as the records were allegedly tampered with, relevant online records were deleted and, in some cases, it was done at the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) office level.The suspicious transactions were identified in Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri, Rajanna-Sircilla, Siddipet, Warangal and Vikarabad districts. Mostly assigned land parcels, which are given to the landless poor with restrictions on the sale of the property, were transferred on to the names of individuals not related to the assignee.The state govt had last year announced the forensic probe on Dharani land transactions done between Oct 2020 and Dec 2024, mostly during the previous BRS regime.“Initially, the audit by the Kerala-based agency was confined to Siddipet and Sircilla and was subsequently extended to Rangareddy and Medchal. Now, it will be done across the state,” a senior revenue department officer told TOI.The govt has recently constituted a committee with some district collectors, officers from the IT department, registration department, CCLA, NIC, and cybercrime experts.“It was observed that the system architecture of the Dharani portal contained inherent vulnerabilities, which were exploited by unscrupulous elements to effect unauthorised entries through certain modules. As the National Informatics Centre (NIC) had adopted the underlying architecture of the Bhu Bharati portal from that of Dharani, the new portal was found to be susceptible to identical exploits, which were likewise misused by such elements,” the govt said in its memo, while ordering a thorough probe recently.The govt directed NIC to develop, de novo, a fresh system architecture conforming to the highest applicable standards, so as to ensure the robustness, integrity and security of the system. The committee was asked to submit its report within 15 days.Sources said once the committee identifies the persons responsible for the alleged anomalies, the govt might either appoint a special investigation team or hand over the case to CID for initiating criminal proceedings.
