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Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet in court against 19 individuals, including BBMP officials and M/s Valmark Realty Holdings Private Limited, in connection with the Transferable Development Rights (TDR) or Development Rights Certificate (DRC) scam.

The investigation, which was taken over from the erstwhile Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in 2019, revealed that the accused laundered illegal money worth 27.68 crore rupees. During the probe, the ED conducted raids at nine locations, including Valmark’s office, seizing crucial documents and attaching immovable properties, including flats worth over 4 crore rupees. The investigation further uncovered that TDR fraud occurred in several areas identified by the BBMP for road widening.

The ED is continuing its probe into the matter. The investigation found that Valmark director Ratan Lath and middlemen K. Suresh, B.S. Surendranath, and K. Gautham were involved in the illegal TDR dealings. Specifically, land at Survey No. 132 in Kaudenahalli, which had already been converted into a revenue layout and sold to third parties, was falsely documented as agricultural land. RTC records were illegally altered in the name of heirs of one Revanna.

Fake agreements and General Power of Attorney (GPA) documents were created and registered at the Indiranagar Sub-Registrar's office. These documents were used to claim TDR benefits from the BBMP despite having no legal rights over the land. To inflate the TDR value, false reports were created claiming that buildings existed on the vacant land. By showing a building from an adjacent survey number as part of the disputed land, a DRC for 10,672.14 square meters was illegally obtained for a building valued at approximately 1.26 crore rupees.

The ED stated that several corrupt BBMP officials participated in the scam by signing off on false valuations without conducting site inspections or verifying documents.

What is the TDR scam?

When the government acquires private land for public purposes like road widening or parks, it issues a Development Rights Certificate (DRC) instead of cash compensation. Landowners can use this certificate to construct additional floors on their remaining land or sell it to others. The accused exploited loopholes in this system to loot crores of rupees. Based on two FIRs filed by the former ACB, the ED initiated a probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). According to the ACB charge sheet, Ratan Lath of Valmark Realty, in collusion with middlemen and BBMP officials, illegally obtained DRCs and sold them in the market for a profit of 27.68 crore rupees.