Former deputy superintendent of land records arrested in Madh CRZ fraud

Meena Pandre, 50, was posted at the Bandra office from 2011 - 2014, and was in charge of the documents that were manipulated

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Crime Branch on Monday arrested a deputy superintendent of land records in connection with the alleged manipulation of documents for plots in ecologically sensitive coastal regulation zones (CRZ) and no development zones (NDZ) in Madh area at Malad (West). The accused, Meena Pandre, 50, was arrested for manipulating documents she was in-charge of during her tenure between 2011 to 2014 in the Bandra office of Land Record department.

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The scam was unearthed by Vaibhav Thakur, a farmer who lives in Erangal village in Malad, and owns ancestral farmland. He filed a complaint first with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, and then with the Goregaon police, after noticing illegal construction taking place on his land and the adjoining land. His complaint stated that government officials, estate agents, and contractors came together to forge documents which classified plots under CRZ and NDZ for development purpose.

In October 2024, Thakur filed a petition in the Bombay high court, which directed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to be formed in the Crime Branch to investigate this case, following which a total of four FIRs were registered. One was registered in 2020 and two were registered in 2021 with the Goregaon police and are being investigated by Unit 7, Unit 2 and property cell department.

The fourth FIR, which is currently being investigated by Unit 8, was registered in Kherwadi police station in December 2021 after Nitin Salunkhe, a deputy superintendent of land records Mumbai suburban found that maps and documents were forged to allow illegal construction on lands under eco-sensitive zones. Pandre was the fourth arrest in this case.

An officer who is part of the investigating team said Pandre was posted in Bandra office of Land Record department, Mumbai suburban district from 2011 to 2014 as the deputy superintendent, and the manipulation of documents took place between 2011 to 2019, including during her tenure. Last week, Jaywant Gangurde, a clerk from the same department, who was also posted during the same tenure, was arrested. The police had also arrested two real estate agents, identified as Inam K and Narasimha, in connection to this case earlier this year. Pandre was produced in the court and sent into judicial custody.

Following Thakur’s complaint, the original maps were verified, and it was found that the new structures were not mentioned in the original maps. It was also found that 102 maps out of 884 were tempered with by a nexus of land records department officials, contractors, and estate agents who facilitated unauthorised constructions on hundreds of properties by showing on records that they were constructed before 1964, allowing new constructions on the CRZ and NDZ lands in Madh area to be regularised, stated the FIR. The forged maps were distributed to the people who build houses on the land illegally and documents were forged to show they were constructed before 1964 so that the BMC cannot demolish it.

The records of land surveying maps and survey records along with distribution of copies were kept preserved in the Bandra office. The office has a total 884 boundary permanent measurement maps from 1955 to 1984, and those maps are kept in the cupboard of the record room where a staff member is appointed. If anyone demands for documents through RTI, the office provides them after paying government fees.