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Thousands of land grabs in Colombo: CID arrests six gangs
More than 3,500 complaints of illegal land grabs, forcible occupation of houses and cases of forged deeds — most of them from Colombo — have been received by the Criminal Investigations Department, a senior officer said yesterday.
He said that already six gangs operating in Colombo had been nabbed and of the complaints received, 1,165 were being investigated.
He said among the complaints were a case of a military officer’s land being occupied, a case of a 60-acre coconut land being sold illegally and a case where the same land was sold to eight people within two weeks.The CID had completed investigations in 220 cases and restored ownership.
“There are instances where suspects who have been arrested for land frauds are still continuing their illegal activities from within the prisons,” he said.
The officer said that in some of the cases, documents in the Land Registrar’s Departments had been removed illegally. “A minor worker at the Land Registrar’s Department in Colombo was found to be the owner of a BMW. He is under arrest”.
The CID in January called on the public to make complaints about the illegal occupancy of land and houses and related frauds. A unit was set up at the CID for the purpose on the directive of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
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