In a major breakthrough, Anantapur police on Saturday busted a high-value e-stamp fraud involving fake property documentation and arrested three individuals for causing significant revenue losses to the state government.
The accused have been identified as Boya Yerrappa, owner of Babu Mee Seva Centre in Kalyandurg, and his accomplices Mohan Babu and Bhuvaneshwar. They were arrested while attempting to flee near Maruti weigh bridge on Anantapur Road, officials confirmed.
Anantapur Superintendent of Police P Jagadeesh stated that the gang created and sold forged e-stamp certificates, duping real estate clients and diverting government stamp duty funds into personal accounts.
The fraud came to light after G Satish Babu, Assistant General Manager of SRC Infra Developers Pvt Ltd, lodged a complaint with Anantapur Town II police on June 22. He alleged that Boya Yerrappa sold forged e-stamps for registering property documents. Out of 410 e-stamps bought from the Mee Seva centre since 2022, 17 were confirmed as forged. While the government received only Rs2,000 in stamp duty, a whopping Rs16.49 lakh was misappropriated and transferred to Yerrappa’s SBI account.
Shaik Emmam Juber, accountant at NEO Construction Company, Bengaluru, reported a loss of Rs2.49 lakh, with only Rs300 going toward legitimate stamp duty.
B Srinivasulu, of Suraj Infra, Uravakonda, revealed that his firm paid Rs2 lakh for e-stamps, of which only Rs200 was actually paid to the government.
Police seized key evidence including three mobile phones, laptops, computer systems, printer-scanner units, and forged e-stamp documents.
A case has been registered under sections:
318(4) – Cheating
338 – Forgery of valuable securities/documents
340(2) r/w 3(5) – Fraudulent use of forged documents
of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The total estimated revenue loss stands at over Rs21 lakh.
SP Jagadeesh emphasized that more documents and victims may emerge as the investigation deepens. Authorities are now examining the digital trail and transactions associated with the Mee Seva centre to uncover the full extent of the fraud network.
