It has been revealed that the major land fraud committed by the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), which surfaced on Wednesday, occurred several months ago and had been covered up by the government.

According to documents that went viral on social media, the Ministry of Housing, Land and Urban Development had informed HDC through letter Number 66 on 15 August 2024, that plots number 20821 and 20768 in Hulhumalé had not been allocated to any party.

The letter sent by the ministry to HDC was in response to a letter sent by the corporation on 24 July 2024.

In the response letter, the housing ministry stated that according to the database of the ‘Binveriyaa’ scheme, which is part of the previous administration’s land ownership program targeting residents of the Malé region, the individuals mentioned in HDC's letter had not applied for plots through the scheme.

Although the government clearly knew from the housing ministry's letter on August 15 that plots had been given to individuals outside the ‘Binveriyaa’ scheme, the government has not disclosed any information about conducting an investigation into the matter so far.

However, on Wednesday, after documents revealing the illegal allocation of plots by falsifying records went viral on social media, the Maldives Police Service (MPS) announced that they had launched an investigation into the matter.

MP for North Galolhu constituency Mohamed Ibrahim, took to social media platform ‘X’ asking, "when a letter from a government ministry to a government company dated ’15 August 2024’, detailing a massive fraud becomes public five months later, sparking outrage, how many more such issues remain buried and concealed?”