BANGALORE: The real estate boom

BANGALORE: The real estate boom triggered by the information technology (IT) revolution has changed the face of Bangalore's underworld and led to the emergence of land mafia.
With land value in the city soaring after the advent of the IT companies, several underworld operators have turned into real estate agents. A positive spin-off of this has been that underworld elements have almost stopped making money from adulterated oil trade and extortion rackets and by collecting "hafta" from brothels, clubs and lottery joints, say senior police officials.
"As they can easily earn lakhs of rupees in any one real estate deal, many of them have given up such activities and have entered into the real estate business," says the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), M.C. Narayana Gowda.
Realtors say the land value in Bangalore, which had plummeted during 1995-2000, has seen a steady increase from 2000 after several IT companies and their ancillary units set up business here.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police (Ulsoor Gate), B.B. Ashok Kumar, says that in addition to the locals, a large number of people from elsewhere are employed in IT firms here.
Most of them earn Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 1 lakh a month, according to sources in the industry. There are a large number of Bangaloreans who are employed in IT firms abroad, earning in dollars. Most of the IT professionals are investing in real estate here. The IT companies too are buying land in a big way, Mr. Ashok Kumar says. According to the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Organised Crime Prevention Cell), B.K. Shivaram, once the real estate boom set in, the underworld operators started dealing in land in Whitefield, which has many IT companies.
Now such elements are mainly dealing in property in east, south and north divisions of the city and in Bangalore Rural district. Their modus operandi is to threaten the owners, buy land from them at cheaper prices and sell them at higher prices, Mr. Shivaram says.
Mr. Narayana Gowda says that in some cases the anti-social elements have created fake documents and claimed ownership of property. The genuine owners had either sought the help of the police or sold the land to the gangsters at a throwaway price.
Mr. Shivaram says there is hardly any underworld element who is not into real estate business. To ensure that their business interests do not clash, they have "divided" the areas among themselves. "`Real estate agent' is the new found status of the underworld operators," he says.
According to Mr. Narayana Gowda there have also been instances of underworld elements killing their rivals over land deals. "We have even come across cases where some people had used the names of underworld dons to carry out their business," he says.
The police say it becomes difficult for them to take action against such people as in many cases the property owners do not lodge complaints, apparently out of fear of the gangsters.