The Nhava Sheva police have taken action against five people accused of defrauding the government by illegally claiming 4.2 hectares of state land in 2020. The accused include Rajesh Navik, Sanket Patil, Amar Misal, Santosh Marathe, and Benny Brian D'Souza.
The scam was uncovered when two people filed claims in response to a government advertisement about land acquisitions for the Virar-Alibaug Multimodal Corridor (VAMMC) project. This parcel of land, belonging to the deputy custodian of evacuee property in Vidhane, was fraudulently usurped and subsequently sold to multiple buyers.
The complaint was lodged with the police by Manish Chandrakant Joshi, a Talathi officer from Jasai village, on September 22. The forgery was revealed during the land acquisition process for the VAMMC project, which aims to construct an expressway connecting the districts of Raigad, Thane, and Palghar. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has already acquired 360 hectares for this initiative.
According to police sources, the Land Acquisition Officer (LAO) had previously published advertisements inviting compensation claims from landowners affected by the project.
“When the advertisement was published, two people claimed compensation for the same plot of land, prompting an investigation into the ownership details,” said a police officer. “This led to the discovery that the land was originally evacuee property under state government jurisdiction.”
Evacuee properties are lands abandoned during the partition, and the central government has appointed a deputy custodian to manage these assets. Investigations revealed that the accused had forged an allotment letter from 1985, which was submitted to the Uran Tahsildar in 2020. This fraudulent letter facilitated the transfer of the land to one Gelaram Bhuromal. Additionally, accused Benny Brian D'Souza posed as Bhuromal to execute the transfer of land records, using a PAN card, Aadhaar, and bank account registered in Bhuromal’s name. Investigators found that parts of the land were sold to two buyers, Haresh Hemani and Hardik Kataria, for a total of Rs1.36 crore.
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“While D’Souza impersonated Bhuromal during the transactions, the others acted as agents in this scheme,” the officer added.
The accused have been charged under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 420 (cheating) and 467 (forgery of documents).
