TURA, April 28: A land assessment official of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, also known as a Mondol, has been arrested by Tura police after a prolonged investigation revealed that he, along with a group of others, have been clandestinely and illegally selling off tribal land to outsiders over a long period of time.

Tura police raided the house of Mondol Nandaram Acharya, aged 57, at Brahmanpara locality of Tura on Wednesday and took him into custody.

During a search of his premises they found more than 20 land documents or pattas belonging to others which he had planned to sell to potential buyers.

Police also found note sheets, land document files and even maps demarcating properties in his possession.

“The illegal sale of land has earned the accused and his accomplices several crores of rupees but we have busted the racket and identified all those involved. The guilty will be arrested,” said West Garo Hills SP V S Rathore.

The modus operandi of the mondol and his group was by diverting tribal land and showing it as open so that outsiders could purchase it.

The group would encourage land disputes by forging documents and making multiple pattas of the very same land to sell to several people.

Some of the members of the racket are said to include those connected to the district council, as well.

The GHADC has been plagued with land document problems for many years due to unscrupulous mondols making double or more pattas over the same land to make a quick buck.

Lack of geo tagging and a comprehensive computer documentation of land documents has allowed this menace to continue for a very long time with the most impacted being the original land owners whose land is targeted by others who have nexus with such unscrupulous officials in the district council.