Three people, who are the next of the kin of a landlord who rented out a flat on the pagdi system, have been booked for allegedly conspiring to grab the dilapidated property from tenants. Under the pagdi system, tenants are treated as co-owners, possessing the right to sublet or sell the property. This is the second such case to be registered against the accused.
Owing to the property's derelict condition, nobody stayed there, but the aggrieved paid regular visits. In his complaint lodged with the Matunga police, Rakshit Doshi, 54, from Dadar said that his in-laws had bought a flat in the Zaver Baug building located at the RAK Road in Matunga East around six decades ago. The mother-in-law handed over the property to her daughter and Doshi's wife Purvi and also gave her the general power of attorney, said the complaint.
Elaborating further, Doshi said that the property's landlord was one Lilavati Parekh. After her death in 1984, the flat was passed on to Kailash, 65, and Jaiwant Parekh. However, due to a dispute between the two, it's not known who is the current landlord, said the complainant.
In April 2022, Doshi was informed by a neighbour that his apartment was broke open by Rajdeep Parekh, 39, who also changed the lock of the door, without the tenants' permission.
Upon the police's intervention, Rajdeep gave the flat keys to Doshi. However, he again committed trespassing a fortnight later and the cops had warned him against repeating the act. A month later, Doshi found out that the name registered in the apartment's electricity bill was changed to Nilima Gangavne, 40. When the complainant's family visited the BEST electricity department, they were informed that the name change application was accepted after Kailash submitted a no-objection certificate and authority letter to the BEST engineer. However, Doshi alleged that all the documents were forged as he or his family members didn't sign them.
On Monday, he registered an FIR against Rajdeep, Kailash and Gangavne under the Indian Penal Code sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 447 (criminal trespass), 451 (house trespass to commit an offense), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged document as genuine). The police on Tuesday said they have started the probe.
A similar case was registered against Rajdeep and Parekh by another tenant, Piyush Seth, on February 6. Seth's allegations were the same as Doshi's.
