BENGALURU: The state government has revealed a significant property registration scam linked to its e-khata system, resulting in the suspension of five sub-registrars. This comes after officials discovered fraudulent registrations of approximately 1,332 properties over a one-year span from December 6, 2024, to December 5, 2025.
The Department of Stamps and Registrations has suspended the officials due to their alleged involvement in misusing the Kaveri 2.0 portal, failing to import essential e-khata details from the e-swathu software, and illegally registering sale deeds. Those suspended include Ravi Sankana Gouda, N. Satish Kumar, Sridhar (first division assistant-in-charge sub-registrar), Girish Chandra, and R. Prabhavathi.
Initially launched as a robust digital safeguard to prevent property registration fraud, the e-khata system has faced increased scrutiny following a complaint from the executive director of the Centre for Smart Governance (CSG), which offers technological solutions to government departments. In response, the North CEN police filed a cybercrime case against unidentified individuals under various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Officials reported that the Kaveri-2 portal, which has prohibited property registration without a valid e-khata since 2024, was allegedly tampered with. It is claimed that individuals accessed the Unified Land Management System (ULMS), which keeps land records from inception to conversion, and manipulated the software to falsely indicate that certain properties possessed e-khata under the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department. Consequently, these properties were unlawfully registered.
The complaint states that the culprits forged property documents and circumvented system safeguards to facilitate registrations in the absence of valid e-khatas. This incident marks the second major instance of fraudulent property registrations since the implementation of mandatory e-khatas in Bengaluru.
Sources indicate that numerous sub-registrar offices dealing with rural gram panchayat properties were implicated, with the majority of illegal registrations traced back to these locations. Technical analysis reportedly uncovered software loopholes across multiple sub-registrar offices, including Banaswadi, Ulsoor, and Varthur.
