BENGALURU
The State government has uncovered a major property registration scam linked to the e-khata system, leading to the suspension of five sub-registrars after officials detected the fraudulent registration of around 1,332 properties over a one-year period. The irregularities reportedly occurred between December 6, 2024, and December 5, 2025.
According to officials, the Department of Stamps and Registrations suspended the officers for their alleged role in misusing the Kaveri 2.0 portal, failing to import mandatory e-khata details from the e-Swathu software, and facilitating illegal registration of sale deeds. The suspended officials have been identified as Ravi Sankana Gouda, N. Satish Kumar, Sridhar (First Division Assistant and in-charge Sub-Registrar), Girish Chandra and R. Prabhavathi.
The e-khata system was introduced with much fanfare as a digital safeguard to curb property fraud by ensuring that registrations could not proceed without valid ownership records. However, the scam came to light following a complaint by the executive director of the Centre for Smart Governance (CSG), the agency that provides technology solutions to government departments. Based on the complaint, the North CEN police registered a cybercrime case against unknown persons under provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Officials said the Kaveri-2 portal, which has barred property registrations without a valid e-khata since 2024, was allegedly manipulated. Miscreants are suspected to have accessed the Unified Land Management System (ULMS), which stores land records from origin to conversion, and hacked the software to falsely project certain properties as having valid e-khatas under the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department.
These manipulated records were then used to illegally register properties. The complaint alleged that forged documents and software bypasses were used to defeat system safeguards. This is the second major instance of fraudulent registrations since e-khata was made mandatory in Bengaluru.
Sources said several sub-registrar offices handling rural gram panchayat properties were affected, with technical analysis pointing to breaches in offices including Banaswadi, Ulsoor and Varthur.
