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Bengaluru's rising real estate leads to bloody land mafia clashes

  • The city has long been plagued by the burgeoning land mafia
  • Small petty gang wars soon assume the face of a full-blown bloodied confrontation on the streets of Bengaluru
Bengaluru rising real estate leads to bloody mafia clashes
Author
Bengaluru, First Published Jan 15, 2017, 9:49 AM IST

 

The city of Bengaluru is growing ten times its size daily. With the regular influx of outsiders and job-seekers into the city, the people are falling short of land. So, with like every commodity whose value increases when it is scarce so does it happen to the demand for land.

 

Any profit-making commodity will then attract attention from money-minded people, criminals and opportunists alike. In the case of Bengaluru, the city has long been plagued by the burgeoning land mafia - the extremely efficient gang of property hoarders and the likes who love to do business with real estate.

 

Along with the development in real estate the sector has also fallen prey to encroachment or even resale of properties without the knowledge of the actual buyer themselves. You may have also heard of cases where in the owner (usually settled abroad) returns home to India to find his house in shambles or sold off or encroached upon by mysterious elements or rowdies.

 

A TOI article has pegged the number of such rowdies at close to 9,000. While there are around 50 organised gangs, around 9,000 petty rowdies chose to do a lot of damage. Infighting over land especially resulted in 26 rowdy killings in 2016, compared to six in 2015. Not only that, even if one rowdy dies, there is always another to replace him in the field.

 

These small petty gang wars that go unmentioned in the media soon assume the face of a full-blown bloodied confrontation on the streets of Bengaluru. At the source of such fights will usually be two reasons – the need to be more powerful and resourceful than the other. These small timers do the dirty deeds for the bigger land sharks, ensuring that their boss’s work is not compromised or interrupted in any manner.

 

Aware that most people don’t retaliate or try and complain against the criminals, rowdies and leaders of the land mafia have their way around the city. They begin with acting as mediators in property disputes and land deals and then slowly assume the role of mini dealers and extortionists. When they see a prized land, they will occupy it by all means possible even though it means landing in police custody for the same.

 

The current land mafia has its eyes on the developing areas mainly on the outskirts of Bangalore. Officers of the Organised Crime Wing have rounded up on the troubled areas in south Bengaluru like Banashankari, Hanumanthnagar, Subramanyapura and Achukattu, locations adjoining Nice Road and areas including Upparpet, Chikpete, Kamakshipalaya, Jnana Bharathi and Kengeri in west Bengaluru. These are some of the property hotspots where rowdies are known to operate.

 

Areas like Ramamurthy Nagar, Yelahanka, Bommanahalli, Hosur Road  and more are also some places wherein such rowdies operate. Given the property expansion in these areas, the anti-social elements lose no time in claiming the land as their own. It seems like only Central Bengaluru is safe from this problem or probably does not witness the land mafia as closely as these places do.

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