LUCKNOW Two brothers forged documents showing themselves as the original owners of the Moradabad SSP bungalow and charged rent for the property from the police department for two decades, a four-member inquiry committee has confirmed this in its report submitted to the divisional commissioner (Moradabad).
The committee was constituted by divisional commissioner (Moradabad) Aunenjay Kumar Singh on August 2 to probe the matter and submit its report to him. It comprised officers from the municipal corporation, district administration, housing, urban development land revenue departments, said government officials on Tuesday.
Singh confirmed that the probe panel filed its report to him on September 9 and that it was being studied to initiate legal action in the matter. He said the role of some police authorities would also come under scanner as they agreed to become tenants without challenging the ownership of the property before the court.
The copy of the report accessed by HT stated that the sprawling SSP bungalow was mentioned as IPS House, which was used as SP residence since 1927.
“The property is registered as IPS house in land revenue records as well as municipal corporation records for over 98 years now,” said a senior police official, adding, “And apparently due to lack of communication, carelessness or casual approach of the then authorities, the court issued ex-parte directions to pay the rent of the property and fixed a rent of ₹5,000 per month.”
{{/usCountry}}“The property is registered as IPS house in land revenue records as well as municipal corporation records for over 98 years now,” said a senior police official, adding, “And apparently due to lack of communication, carelessness or casual approach of the then authorities, the court issued ex-parte directions to pay the rent of the property and fixed a rent of ₹5,000 per month.”
{{/usCountry}}He said the two brothers claimed ownership of the Moradabad SSP’s residence and filed a civil suit in a local court in 2003, claiming to be the real owners of the property. The police paid rent for around 12 years between 2007 and 2019 until another civil suit was filed in 2019 to revise the rent, after which it was revised to ₹51,000 per month.
The official explained that an ex-parte decision is one decided by a court without requiring all of the parties to the dispute to be present.
Notably, Hemraj Meena, who was Moradabad SSP till June 25, 2024, before getting transferred as SP (Azamgarh), crosschecked the ownership records and registered an FIR against the two brothers and unidentified persons on April 20, for fraudulently showing themselves to be the real owners and procuring rent to cause loss to the state exchequer. Meena filed a case, seeking records from the claimants of the property and stopped paying rent for six months, the officer added.
The FIR was lodged by Moradabad Reserve Police Lines inspector Rakam Singh under IPC sections 420 (for cheating), 467 (for forging documents to claim ownership of government property), 468 (for using forged documents for cheating), 471 (using forged documents as genuine) and Section 120-B for criminal conspiracy.