Puducherry, Aug 30 (PTI) A government official was remanded to 15-day judicial custody on Wednesday, a day after he was arrested in an alleged 'temple land grabbing' case, police said.

The Crime Branch of CID in Puducherry arrested D Balaji, Settlement Officer, Department of Survey and Land Records in Puducherry administration. He was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate today and was remanded to judicial custody till September 13.

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With Balaji, the number of people arrested in the alleged land grabbing of the Kamatchi Amman temple has risen to 15, police said.

Police claimed that Balaji had changed the 'patta' relating to the temple land in the name of one Periyanagasamy alias Arulraj based on "forged and fraudulent will without perusing the parent and link documents."

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The police had received a complaint from the trustees of the temple some months ago alleging that the temple land measuring nearly 64,000 sq feet and worth Rs 12.49 crore in the neighbouring Rainbow Nagar was grabbed by some persons. The land was registered in connivance with a section of officials, they claimed.

Cases were registered under different sections of Indian Penal Code including Section 420 and 465, 468 and 671.

A special investigation team led by Superintendent of Police R Mohan Kumar intensified the investigation after the trustees lodged a complaint.

The police source said that the investigation team collected documents from various departments including Revenue and Registration departments. They also interrogated several officials and other witnesses relating to the case.

It was alleged that the land was registered on the basis of fraudulent and fake documents and pattas were created and registered in favour of the accused persons.

Police had arrested some months ago a sub registrar V Sivasamy in connection with the registration of temple land based on alleged fake documents.

A number of organisations and political parties had held demonstration urging the government to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as encroachment of the temple land was a serious offence.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)