18,000 audio call recordings recovered in Rs 310-crore Dhule-Solapur highway compensation scam case

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Beed police, probing the alleged Rs 310-crore land acquisition compensation scam linked to the Dhule-Solapur national highway project, has recovered 18,000 audio call recordings from the cellphones of the accused.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in compensation disbursed for land acquired for the project, where payouts were reportedly inflated through manipulation of land records and ownership details, resulting in losses worth hundreds of crores of rupees to the state exchequer. On May 7, former Beed collector Avinash Pathak was arrested in connection with the case.

Speaking about the recovery of call recordings, Beed superintendent of police Navneet Kanwat said the sheer volume of digital evidence was being transcribed and analysed round the clock to reconstruct the sequence of events, identify individual roles and uncover the alleged conspiracy behind the fraudulent compensation payouts.

According to officials involved in the investigation, the SIT retrieved the recordings from multiple cellphones seized during raids and searches conducted over the past several months. Investigators suspected that many of these audio files contained detailed conversations regarding compensation amounts, land acquisition documents, beneficiary names, alleged manipulation of records, coordination among middlemen and the movement of funds linked to the scam.

Highlighting the scale of the task, the investigators said dedicated teams were working in shifts to transcribe and catalogue the conversations. SIT investigation officer and assistant superintendent of police Venkatram said, “Each audio file is being carefully analysed to identify speakers, match timelines, correlate the content with bank transactions, revenue documents and witness statements already collected by the SIT.”

The officials said forensic experts had been roped in to authenticate the recordings and determine whether any attempts were made to delete or tamper with digital evidence. “We believe these conversations could help establish how the alleged network operated during the land acquisition and compensation process for the highway expansion project,” an official said.

The officials expected that the call recordings could provide direct insights into communication among the accused during key stages of compensation disbursal. “The SIT is also examining references to properties, cash transactions and alleged proxy beneficiaries in a bid to trace the money trail,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the investigation has widened further, with the officials scrutinising the financial dealings, movable and immovable assets, and suspected benami properties linked to former Beed collector Pathak and his associates.

The officials indicated that more summons, searches and arrests might follow once the transcription and forensic scrutiny of these audio recordings was completed.