GUJRAT: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) claims to have unearthed 900 bogus registration deeds as well as mutations in a certain area of Gujranwala as an FIR may also be lodged against some senior officials of the Land Revenue Department.

Through these bogus registration deeds, tehsildars and patwaris concerned have caused a loss of Rs 114.8 million to the national exchequer.

According to an ACE official, 4,987 registration deeds and mutations of 22 months between July 2024 and May 2026 in the area of Ladhewala Warraich near Gujranwala city had been scrutinised by the ACE’s inquiry team and 900 registration deeds were found bogus.

Gujranwala ACE Director Amjad Shahzad confirmed the report and said that a detailed inquiry had been conducted in the land revenue record of Ladhewala Warraich during which the scam was unearthed as the buyers and sellers of these bogus deeds remained unaware of the fraud by the land revenue officials since the owners had paid the exact taxes and dues applied on these deeds as per the government rate.

The tehsildars and patwaris, he said, had defrauded people as well as the provincial government by doing these transactions of properties through fake stamp papers and amounts printed on the front page of these deeds which had been established during the inquiry.

He said four tehsildars, including Sarfraz Ahmed Cheema, Altaf Hussain Tarrar, Arshad Dhullu and Imtiaz Sahi as well as the two patwaris namely Bilal Butt and Mustafa Maan had been found involved in the scam as a case was also being lodged against these officials in the light of a detailed inquiry report.

He said that the assistant commissioners who remained posted in that tehsil during the period of bogus registration deeds, might also be grilled by the ACE as further legal action had been underway.

Earlier, in August last, the ACE had arrested the then superintendent of Gujranwala district jail Azhar Cheema in a case of fraud of Rs45 million with a citizen and the ACE had later recovered that amount from the arrested suspect and handed it over to the complainant a couple of weeks ago.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2026