Plot and plunder | Land grabbing cases in Telangana Premium

Anumandla Ravinder's struggle against land-grabbing showcases the fight for justice in Karimnagar, Telangana, led by IPS officer Abhishek Mohanty.

There is unmistakable joy on Anumandla Ravinder’s face when he tells his friends and relatives about his lifelong dream finally taking shape on a 140-square yard plot: building a house for his family. A resident of Theegalaguttapally, on the outskirts of Karimnagar city in northern Telangana, about 160 kilometres from Hyderabad, the 49-year-old, with his modest stature and demeanour, embodies the quintessential traits of a middle-class family man. With the concrete slab recently laid for the house, his excitement is evident. But his eyes well up as he reflects on the journey that led him here.

Mistaken for tears of joy, they hide his pain as he recalls the solitary battle he fought against a powerful land-grabbing gang led by a local politician. Starting off as a supervisor at a bar nearly three decades ago, he climbed his way up to the position of manager.

With his modest savings, Ravinder, a Dalit, purchased an open plot on the city outskirts in 2014. Over the next couple of years, he constructed a basement on the plot with contributions from his near and dear ones. All seemed well until a call in May 2022 shattered his dreams: a neighbor reported unauthorised digging on his plot to lay pillar foundations.

Scared, Ravinder rushed to the site, and saw 15 people led by a leader of the then ruling party trying to erect a structure on his plot. “That was the beginning of my nightmare, and I was compelled to seek the help of police,” he recalls, fighting back tears.

A police team arrived at the spot and asked the two parties to visit the police station. Ravinder went with the plot documents but the other party represented by one Vijender (name changed), henchman of the local leader, did not turn up.

After hours of waiting, Ravinder returned to the site the next morning, only to find a whitewashed compound wall and two tin-shed rooms on his plot. A group of strangers were inside the ‘overnight-raised house’ and denied Ravinder entry. “There were more surprises. Three others, armed with forged documents, claimed rights to the plot,” says Ravinder, adding that those people had filed multiple cases against him over the now ‘disputed’ land. Police bound him over, cautioning him against entering the plot without a court order.

He says he then approached the then minister Gangula Kamalakar, who summoned the local leader and reprimanded him for grabbing the property. Ravinder managed to secure building permission, laid a borewell and raised pillars to build his house, having installed surveillance cameras.