Nghe An: A set of land records has many signs of forgery

From the story of two bamboo bushes

According to the reflection of Mr. NHT (originally from Long Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, currently residing in Ho Chi Minh City): His family has 2 bamboo bushes located on the land marked LNK (other perennial land) in Dien Yen hamlet, Long Thanh commune and has been using it for a long time.

Mr. T. reflected: In 2021, I returned to my hometown and discussed with the Land Use Registration Office of Yen Thanh district to request legalization of the above area to build a church for my ancestors.

Some time later, around mid-June 2023, his younger brother in the countryside saw some families dumping soil in this area, thinking that his family also had bamboo bushes left by their ancestors, so he dumped a few carts of soil to make a crop. Also dumping soil at this time was Mr. NHD's family (also residing in Dien Yen hamlet, Long Thanh commune). However, the Long Thanh commune People's Committee later suspended both families.

According to Mr. T. at the meeting to resolve land violations on June 14, 2023, Mr. D. said that the two bamboo bushes were located on his family's land, and at the same time asked my family to cut down the bamboo bushes.

To ensure compliance with legal procedures, on June 15, 2023, Mr. T's family submitted an application to the People's Committee of Long Thanh Commune to purchase the area with the two bamboo bushes mentioned above. However, the People's Committee of Long Thanh Commune later responded in writing that this area was land that had not been planned for residential development.

It was thought that the application for legalization would not be successful, so Mr. Trong's family continued to use the two bamboo bushes as they had done many years ago. However, on December 17, 2023, Mr. NHD's family sent someone to cut down a bamboo bush.

On December 17, 2023, Mr. T's family filed a complaint about Mr. D's family having people cut down bamboo bushes to the People's Committee of Long Thanh commune. On December 20, 2023, the People's Committee of Long Thanh commune held a meeting between the parties to resolve the bamboo bush cutting issue. At the meeting to resolve the bamboo bush dispute, Mr. Trong's family was "stunned" when they received information from the People's Committee of Long Thanh commune that the area with the two bamboo bushes had been granted a red book to Mr. Nguyen Hong Due's family a long time ago.

Frustrated because the family's bamboo bushes were allocated to Mr. Due's family's land title, in 2023, Mr. Trong's family repeatedly submitted petitions to the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district. Because he was not satisfied with the response of the local government, Mr. Trong was instructed by the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district to submit a petition to the Court to resolve the dispute.

On March 15, 2024, Mr. Trong's family officially filed a petition to prevent transactions related to the disputed land, and at the same time, requested to maintain the status quo of the remaining bamboo bushes.

However, on April 18, 2025, in the morning, when the People's Court of Nghe An province summoned the parties to work and Mr. Trong's family requested to withdraw the petition to transfer the case to the police investigation agency, Mr. Due's family brought in machinery to flatten the remaining bamboo bushes.

To the file with signs of forgery

According to Mr. T., the reason he filed a request to transfer the case to the police investigation agency was because after learning that Mr. D.'s family had been granted a red book covering both of their bamboo bushes, he requested to check the above land records.

"The surprising thing is that the red book application file of Mr. D's family has many signs of being falsified, created in 2015, under the name of correcting the boundary and adjusting the land codes of many plots of land of many surrounding households. After that, this file was decided by the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district to issue a red book with the number CB 067884 on August 4, 2015 with an area of ​​450m2²By 2022, Mr. D. had divided the land into two plots for his two children," said Mr. T.

Based on the information provided by Mr. T., we (PV) went directly to the Branch of the Land Registration Office of Yen Thanh district and requested to access Mr. NHD's first-time certificate application file.

When we approached the file, we found that in the file there was a receipt dated April 30, 1995 (a holiday and Sunday), with only the reason for payment being "land purchase fee" for the amount of 400,000 VND. At the same time, there was only 1 signature in the cashier's box, without stating the full name. In addition, there were no other signatures of the unit head, chief accountant, the person who prepared the form, and the person who submitted it.

In this file, there is also an Application for Land Use Right Certificate dated July 15, 2015, signed and confirmed by the name of Le Cong Dau - Chairman of Long Thanh Commune People's Committee. However, it is worth mentioning that at this time, Mr. Dau is no longer the Chairman of Long Thanh Commune People's Committee, but the position of Chairman of Long Thanh Commune People's Committee is Mr. Doan Ngoc Ha (the result of the election to supplement the position of Chairman of Long Thanh Commune People's Committee was approved from May 20, 2015).

In addition, in this file there are many documents suspected of being forged, such as the Minutes of the meeting of the Land Registration Council of Long Thanh commune dated July 15, 2015, which also recorded the title of Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune, Le Cong Dau, concurrently Chairman of the Council. In addition, in the signature section of the council, there are many people with signatures, but they are all photocopied signatures, not fresh ink signatures. Even Ms. Hoang Thi Quynh signed in this record with the title of Chairwoman of the Women's Union, but at that time, Ms. Quynh had moved to become Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Long Thanh commune.

In addition, there are many documents that are recorded very roughly, such as: Minutes of determining the boundaries and landmarks of the land plots without the signatures of the neighboring households; Report of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Yen Thanh district (in 2015), without a number, without a clear date; the residential area opinion poll is dated November 15, 2015 (that is, after the time of being granted the red book); the minutes of the end of public posting and the notice of the review and granting of the Land Use Right Certificate have the year erased to "201...".

Even the request for correction and adjustment of land type code also stated that land plot number 2423 of Mr. NHD's family was formed from a part of land plots number: 1058, 1054, 1067, 1059, 1062 and 1056. However, looking at the map, the land plots are far apart. Even land plot 1067 is separated by a concrete road.

What is more special is that the person who checked and signed to confirm the eligibility for granting the Land Use Rights Certificate in this file and dated July 21, 2015 is NHM, an officer working at the Yen Thanh District Land Registration Office Branch, who is also the son of Mr. NHD.

By 2022, Mr. NHD's original land plot was divided into two plots for his two sons, NHM and NVL.

Working with us, Mr. Tran Trung Hieu - Deputy Director of the Yen Thanh District Land Registration Office Branch was also "surprised" with this set of documents. And admitted that in the last time he was authorized by the Department of Agriculture and Environment to respond to the People's Court of Nghe An province on March 28, 2025, Mr. Hieu only confirmed the land division part (ie when NHD's land was divided for his son).

Obviously, the dossier for granting the Land Use Right Certificate to Mr. NHD in 2015 has many suspicions of being falsified. I wonder how it still managed to get past the relevant responsible agencies? This is an issue that needs to be clarified.