Nearly two months after a complaint was registered, the Kashimira police finally registered an offence on Friday against three people on alleged charges of scaring a builder and his partners by showing them fake summons of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in order to extort money in the guise of working out a settlement. However, no arrests have been made so far.
In his complaint registered on 22nd January 2023, the complainant Anand Agarwal of Salasar Builders stated that he was informed by one of the accused that the ED had registered a case against them under the sections of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and Income Tax Act, 1961 for their involvement in a fraudulent deal with a foreign national to purchase an Enemy Property in Kashimira.
Fake ED summon presented
Shah also showed them the copy of the ED summons with an assurance that he can sort out the issue with the help of his liaison in the ED office in New Delhi in return for clearance of disputed arrears amounting Rs.6.5 crores to another accused Gautam Agarwal and Rs. 5 lakh for himself.
Sensing something amiss, the complainant established contact with the ED through email and got a reply from the Assistant Director (Inv) on 18, October, 2022 stating that said summons were bogus and fake. After verifying the authenticity of the complaint, the Kashimira police booked Shah for forging the ED summons and two others for allegedly circulating the documents on social media platforms. The entire matter is related to a land deal which is classified as enemy property.
Case registered but no arrests yet
“An offence under sections 465,468,469,471,120 (B),385, 500 and 34 of the IPC has been registered against the trio. Further investigations are on.” said senior police inspector- Sandip Kadam. However, no arrests have been made so far. "Despite following the due process of law for the development of the said land parcel, we were being harassed and defamed by these unscrupulous elements with a sole aim to extort money by showing fear of ED," said Anand Agarwal. However, no arrests have been made so far.
Notably, the ED had busted an interstate gang of racketeers indulged in preparing and sending fake summons/ notices in November-2022.
What is Enemy Property?
Enemy properties are those whose survey numbers are registered in the names of people who migrated to Pakistan decades ago. After they accepted Pakistani citizenship and India declared Pakistan an enemy state around 1965, their properties were declared as enemy properties. Large parcels of land tagged with more than 30 survey numbers falling in jurisdictions of revenue villages like-Ghodbunder, Mahajanwadi and Kashi are under the scanner for being enemy properties.
