E-stamp paper fraud busted in Andhra, three held: Cops

THe Anantapur law in Andhra Pradesh on sat busted a john r. Major e-stamp humbug and arrested ternion persons, who caused huge loss running into several lakhs of rupees to the revenue department, officials aware of the matter said.The accused were identified as Boya Yerrappa, who runs Babu Mee Seva Centre (an online platform that extends government services to the people) at Kalyandurg and his accomplices Mohan Babu and Bhuvaneshwar.“They were arrested near Maruti weigh bridge on Anantapur road at Kalyandurg, when they were trying to flee the place,” Anantapur superintendent of police P Jagadeesh told reporters.Police seized three mobile phones, computers, printer-scanner units, laptop and other electronic material from the arrested people. “We have booked the accused under sections 318 (4) (cheating), 338 (forgery of valuable securities and documents), 340 (2) r/w 3(5) (fraudulent and dishonest use of forged documents) of Bharatiya Nyaya Samhitha,” the SP said.Jagadeesh said on June 22, the Anantapur Town II police received a complaint from SRC Infra Developers Pvt Ltd assistant general manager G Satish Babu, who alleged that Yerrappa had sold them forged e-stamp papers for registration of their property documents.According to the complaint, the Mee Seva operator had misused eight e-stamp certificates, causing an estimated government revenue loss of ₹7.9 lakh.Investigation revealed that the SRC Infra Developers had purchased around 410 e-stamps from the Babu Mee Seva Centre since 2022. An internal audit found 17 of them were forged or misused and an amount of ₹16.51 lakhs paid to Boya Yerrappa’s SBI account. While only ₹2,000 was paid as stamp duty to the government, the remaining ₹16.49 lakh was allegedly misappropriated.On June 25, there was another complaint from Shaik Emmam Juber, accountant of NEO Construction Company in Bengaluru, stating that the company had purchased three e-stamps for ₹2.5 lakhs. Upon verification, it was found that only ₹300 was paid to the government, and ₹2.49 lakhs was misappropriated, police said.On the same day, another person, B Srinivasulu, accountant at Suraj Infra at Uravakonda complained that he had purchased two e-stamps for ₹2 lakh, of which only ₹200 was paid in stamp duty and ₹1.99 lakhs was siphoned off.The police said Yerrappa’s wife, Bhargavi, is an authorised agent of Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited, a subsidiary of IFCI Limited that serves as the Central Record Keeping Agency (CRA) for stamp duty collection across 25 states and Union Territories.Stock Holding manages the e-Stamping system, an innovative and secure internet-based application designed to provide citizens with convenient document stamping services. The system eliminates the need for physical stamp papers and offers an electronic method for paying stamp duty to the government.“Investigations revealed that Yerrappa has drawn 15,851 e-stamps from Stock Holding Corporation of India, Kurnool, (the authorised seller of stamp papers for registrations) in the last two years. He had paid only ₹32.8 lakh to the government, while swindling over several lakhs of rupees due to be paid to the government towards stamp duty,” he said.The SP said the SRC and other infra companies transferred ₹32 lakh to the Mee Seva account as stamp duty, but only ₹6.52 lakh was paid to the government. The remaining ₹25.48 lakh was allegedly embezzled, he said, adding that the police were tracing the buyers of the remaining 15,413 e-stamps to determine further fraud.Meanwhile, state revenue minister Anagani Satya Prasad said the government had ordered a statewide probe into the fake e-stamp scam uncovered in Kalyandurg of Anantapur district.During a review meeting with senior officials on Friday, the minister directed the Inspector General (IG) and Deputy Inspectors General (DIGs) of the Registration Department to examine the entire e-stamp issuance process and identify loopholes.He said, “Strict action would be taken against those involved, regardless of their position. The integrity of the system needs to be safeguarded through robust measures.”