Mysuru A case was registered against a tehsildar and two other officials for allegedly grabbing government land in Chikkamagaluru district , Kadur police said on Sunday.

According to police, Tehsildar Umesh, Shirastedar Nanjundaiah and revenue inspector allegedly created forged documents of government land and transferred it to people illegally.

All of the accused while working in Kadur taluk office misappropriated powers and cheated the government by transferring ownership of government land to people by collecting bribe, police said.

Followed by complaints by Ullinagara village in Kadur taluk Chikkamagaluru DC Meena Nagaraj ordered sub divisional magistrate B Nagaraj to conduct probe against the officers. The probe report by SDM confirmed that the accused officers had transferred 5.4 acres of land in Ulli Nagara village and transferred it to private people causing loss of lakhs of rupees to government exchequer.

The probe confirmed that accused tehsildar Umesh used erstwhile tehsildars login ID to transfer the land to avoid legal complications.

The SDM Nagaraj filed complaint against three on Saturday at Kadur police station followed by instructions from DC.

‘’We have registered a case under section 192 A(2) of the Land Revenue Act 1964, IPC 409 (criminal breach of trust by government servant) at Kadur police station,’’ Tarikere deputy SP Hal Murthy Rao told HT.

He said the tehsildar and others transferred the government land to others by forging the land records. “We have initiated enquiry and the exact quantity of land grabbing would be known only after the investigation is over”, he said, adding that the accused Umesh is working as special land acquisition officer (SLAO) at seabird naval base in Karwar.

The state government took the land grabbing cases seriously as lakhs of acres of land grabbing was detected across state. On August 8, revenue minister Krishna Byre Gowda told reporters that the administration will take up a campaign against encroachment of government land and give targets to officials to ensure that the encroachments are cleared. As data on encroachment was already available, officials were told to submit a time-table for removing the encroachments by August 12.

“We have told them to give a commitment on how many days it will take for them to clear the encroachments. The eviction should happen as per the time table they draw up,” he said a similar model for clearing encroachment of government land will be adopted across state.

According to people aware of the matter, nearly two lakh acres of government land has been encroached in Chikkamagaluru district.