Bharatmala corridor scam Six more held in fresh crackdown

 

 

 

In a major breakthrough in the Bharatmala corridor land acquisition scam, the State Economic Offences Investigation and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SEOIACB) on Wednesday arrested six individuals, including retired and serving government officials, for their involvement in a multi-crore compensation fraud that has rocked the Vishakhapatnam-Raipur Economic Corridor project. Those arrested include retired (Amin) Gopal Ram Verma and serving (Amin) Narendra Kumar Nayak from the Water Resources Department, alongside four private individuals-Khemraj Kosale, Punuram Deshlahre, Bhojram Sahu, and Kundan Baghel. All six were presented before the Special Court (Prevention of Corruption Act) in Raipur, where judicial proceedings for further custody are under way. Notably, Amin is a technical post in the Revenue or Water Resources Departments, typically involved in land measurement, demarcation and survey work.

 

They play a pivotal role in land acquisition processes for government projects, including determining boundaries and compensation assessments. In this case, Amins – Gopal Ram Verma (retired) and Narendra Nayak (serving) – are accused of submitting false land measurement reports, facilitating the Rs 100 crore scam. SEOIACB officials confirmed that the arrests stem from Crime No. 30/2025, which details a systematic conspiracy between 2020 and 2024. The scam involved fraudulent land acquisition claims under the Bharatmala Pariyojana, a flagship national infrastructure scheme. Government-acquired lands were deceitfully sold back to the State through falsified records, enabling massive compensation payouts to unauthorised claimants.

 

The investigation revealed that revenue records were manipulated, land parcels were split into fraudulent subplots, and false ownership documents were prepared. In multiple instances, beneficiaries who were not the actual landowners received hefty compensation amounts, while genuine farmers were sidelined. According to SEOIACB, several of the accused extracted large commissions from farmers in exchange for facilitating this illegal process. This development follows the earlier judicial proclamations issued on June 28 against six absconding revenue officials, who continue to evade arrest. Acting on repeated failed attempts to serve warrants, the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Raipur, invoked Section 84 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) 2023 to compel their court appearance on July 29. The proclaimed offenders include SDO Nirbhay Kumar Sahu, Tehsildar Shashikant Kurre, Naib Tehsildar Lakheshwar Prasad Kiran, and Patwaris Jitendra Kumar Sahu, Basanti Ghritlahare, and Lekhram Dewangan.

 

SEOIACB’s probe alleges that these officials played crucial roles in authorising fake land reports, approving forged mutations, and fabricating revenue maps. Their actions led to large-scale misappropriation of public funds, with losses to the exchequer exceeding Rs 100 crore. This wave of arrests also follows an earlier crackdown on April 25, when four individuals-Uma Tiwari, Kedar Tiwari, Harmeet Singh Khanuja, and Vijay Jain-were apprehended for siphoning off Rs 2 crore through similar fraudulent means. That case, part of the same FIR, exposed a scheme in which already-acquired government lands were shown as private holdings to trigger fresh compensation claims. SEOIACB sources confirmed to ‘The Hitavada’ that supplementary charge sheets are under preparation, supported by forensic audits of revenue servers and digital records. Investigators are also scrutinising potential links to senior bureaucrats and political figures, although no official names have been cited in this regard yet.