Seeks police protection after exposing construction giant's attempts to seek BDA approval on basis of forged documents

He blew the whistle on a real estate scam little knowing that it could well leave him and his family dead.

Tejaswi HM, a lawyer who represented Concord Group for the past two-and-a-half-years, a reputed construction company, sought police protection on May 4. Tejaswi alleged that his employer threatened to have him murdered after he blew the lid over a land-grabbing scam. Concord allegedly acquired over 13 acres of land in Electronic City for constructing an apartment named Concord Manhattan.

Tejaswi, who was supervising the project, noticed that the land conversion records were forged. He also noticed that the seal and signature of the deputy commissioner were fabricated in the papers submitted by Concord for BDA approval.

"I tried to stop the fraud by bringing it to the notice of the company higher ups. It was all in vain. Instead, they initially forced me to shut up and later forced me top resign," Tejaswi said. Undeterred, Tejaswi approached the BDA and even the city police commissioner with a memorandum that exposed the details of the fraud and asked them to take action.u00a0 "When the company came to known about my move they warned me that they would kill me and my family if I did not hand all the documents over to them," said Tejaswi. When Tejaswi approached the Vyyalikaval police seeking protection, the investigating officer investigating the case allegedly received calls from higher-ups to go slow on Concorde.

Calls stop
"After I filed the complaint, the calls stopped," said Tejaswi.

The Vyyalikaval police, who have taken up the case, summoned concerned officials for questioning. "The accused have, however, not responded to the summons yet," said the investigating officer in the case. Tejaswi met the advocates' association president yesterday. P Gopal Reddy, the managing director of Concorde group of Real Estate, and his personal assistant Prasanna Kumar, refused to comment on the issue.