Nashik: Seven people, \including two talathis or revenue officials, have been booked for allegedly duping a city-based real estate developer of over Rs 3 crore by using forged documents of a prime land in suburban Kalina, police said on Tuesday.
They were booked by the police in suburban Khar, but no arrest has been made till now. The accused, booked for cheating and forgery, among other charges, include two talathis identified by the police only as Sheikh (now retired) and Nikam (suspended) and Suresh Shetty, a broker at the registration office here.
According to Khar police officials, one Seprin D’souza, who posed as the “owner” of the plot at the centre of the fraud case, and his three associates - Parvesh Rai, Jagdish Kumar and Dev Tiwari - are the other accused.
They all are accused of duping Bajaj Developers owner Govind Bajaj (65), the complainant in the case, they said. In his statement to the police, Bajaj said in 2014, Kumar and Tiwari contacted him for selling a piece of prime land in Kolivery village in Kalina.
The duo told Bajaj they knew the plot’s owner and the land deal was subsequently finalised for Rs 16 crore, the officials said.
Later, they introduced D’souza as the “owner” of the plot. D’souza produced forged documents like 7/12 `utara’ to show the land belonged to him and his family, and convinced the realtor to go ahead with the deal, they said.
The fake documents were obtained with the help of the two talathis and the broker booked in the case, they said. The 7/12 receipt is a crucial piece of document for the establishment of ownership of a piece of land.
D’souza and his associates convinced Bajaj to pay a sum of Rs 3.21 crore to them for registration of the property, transfer of ownership and other related formalities, the officials said.
Bajaj said, “Without knowing their intention, I transferred the amount into their bank accounts as per their requirements and paid some cash too.
“But when I asked them to hand over the property they started making excuses and even threatened me. Later, I approached the local talathi (revenue) office and was shocked to find out that the land actually belonged to a private company and not to D’souza or his family members,” the complainant said.
Bajaj approached D’souza and sought his money back. “In exchange of this plot, he offered me another plot in Sunder Nagar in Kalina, saying he was its owner.
But this, too, turned out to be a false claim as the plot was in the name of a woman,” the real estate developer said. D’souza issued two cheques to Bajaj, but both were dishonoured, the officials said.
“Fed up with their attitude I approached the Khar police and submitted an application with proof based on which an FIR was filed on September 10 against the seven persons,” Bajaj said.
