CRZ scam: SIT summons over 40 people, including 18 govt officers

The Bombay HC-monitored SIT has summoned 40+ people, including 18 officials, in a land scam involving forged property records in Malad West.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court-monitored special investigation team (SIT) probing the alleged manipulation of property records to convert coastal regulation zone (CRZ) and no development zone (NDZ) land into developable plots in the Madh area in Malad West has summoned over 40 people including 18 government officials and home-owners.

CRZ scam: SIT summons over 40 people, including 18 govt officers

“Most of the government officials we have summoned retired from the city survey office and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), where they were allegedly involved forging documents,” said a senior official who is part of the probe. “We have already recorded the statements of 15 people including some government officials and are currently verifying their roles,” he said.

The SIT has so far arrested five people in connection with the alleged land scam, including Devdas Jadhav and Sama Marade who retired from the city survey office; Shaikh Imam, a property owner; and Narashim Puttawallu, a contractor and the main accused in scam who is linked with all four cases under investigation. On Tuesday, the Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court rejected Puttawallu’s bail plea saying his role was circumspect.

According to sources in the SIT, maps and documents pertaining to many of the 884 houses constructed in the ecologically sensitive area in Madh were forged between 2012 and 2020. The SIT has so far unearthed 165 forged maps which fraudulently show that the unauthorised structures were constructed before 1964 as a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) notification bars demolition of structures constructed prior to that year, said the sources.

“A nexus of government officials, contractors and estate agents colluded with home owners to forge maps and documents, which facilitated unauthorised construction in hundreds of properties in Madh,” said a police officer.

The alleged scam was unearthed by a farmer, Vaibhav Thakur who lives in Erangal village in Malad and owns ancestral farmland. Three first information reports (FIR) regarding illegal constructions were registered in Goregaon in 2020-21 based on his complaints as the city survey office was located in Goregaon while a fourth FIR was registered at Kherwadi police station in Bandra East by the deputy superintendent of land records, which maintains the records.

Since the police did not take any action on the FIRs, Thakur approached the Bombay high court for relief. In October 2024, the court ordered an SIT of the crime branch to investigate the matter. Unit 7 of the crime branch arrested five accused in November and December last year, including Jadhav, Marade, Pattawallu, Imam and a real estate agent. Later, unit 2 of the crime branch took custody of Imam and Marade.

“Our probe indicates that Narashim Pattawallu was involved in all four cases and we will seek his custody soon,” said a police officer.