Mumbai: MRA Marg Police have booked two men last week for allegedly seizing four acres of land in Khandala, worth Rs 50 crore, by submitting forged documents to the registrar’s office, at the Old Customs House in south Mumbai. The fraud came to light when the complainant, Jitendra Badgujar, was approached by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for a fraud case registered in Mumbai.
The two accused, Yusuf Lakdawala and Mohan Nair, have been named in the First Information Report (FIR) filed by Badgujar, the sub-registrar of Maval taluka. According to police sources, the EOW officials of the Mumbai Police, had visited Badgujar last year in February in connection, seeking some documents in connection with a fraud case they were investigating.
The case was related to the the ownership of four acres of land in Khandala. Further investigations revealed, Lakdawala and Nair, along with some associates, had conspired to usurp 4.38 acres of land in Khandala, approximately worth Rs 50 crore, by forging signatures on documents. “The accused had obtained an ‘affidavit-cum-deed of confirmation’ for the land.
This was obtained on the basis of some documents that dated back to 1949 and was found to be fake,” said Badgujar in his complaint. Badjugar also alleged the accused to having used the registration number of the original document, which is recorded with the Mumbai registrar’s office, to cover their tracks.
The EOW police suspected this was part of a larger case and asked Badgujar to lodge a complaint at the registrar’s office and MRA Marg police, as the crime was committed in the latter’s jurisdiction. The police have booked the accused under relevant sections of the IPC and Section 82 of IRA (making false statements, delivering false copies) and later transferred to the EOW for further investigation.
