CID probes sale of land with forged deeds

Sandasen Marasinghe

COLOMBO:The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has detected the fraudulent sale of plots of land at Lake Drive, Royal Park, Rajagiriya utilising forged deeds and other documents.

The fake deeds and extracts of titles had been prepared with the help of an office assistant of the Land Registry.

A CID spokesperson said the suspect had sold two plots of land of 10 and 24 perches for Rs. 13 million and Rs. 18.5 million after preparing forged documents. The documents had been prepared with the titles and signatures of two deceased Attorneys-at-law.

He said the deeds at the Land Registry had been replaced with counterfeit deeds. The documents that contained the extracts of titles had been taken away by the office assistant out of the land registry and the original extracts had been replaced.

The CID said the 10 perch plot of land had been sold twice with forged documents twice, first for Rs. 11 million and later for Rs. 13 million. The 24 perch plot had been first sold with forged documents for Rs. 16 million then for Rs. 18.5 million. Documents had been then prepared to sell it for Rs. 3.16 million for the third time.

The spokesperson said the Land Registry office assistant said to have been involved in this business was using a vehicle worth nearly Rs. 2 million and had admitted that he bought the vehicle with the money he earned through unscrupulous deals.

He said investigations were continuing.