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Pune businessman duped of ₹25cr in fake land deal; 9 booked
Pune police have booked nine persons for allegedly forging power of attorney and flat ownership documents related to prime property located in Lullanagar owned by prominent builder Subhash Sanas
PUNE The Bharti Vidyapeeth Police have booked nine persons for allegedly forging power of attorney and flat ownership documents related to prime luxurious property located at Beverly Hills in Lullanagar owned by Pune’s prominent builder Subhash Sanas. The accused also cheated a bank of ₹4.30 crore in the property fraud case, officials said on Thursday.
The fraudsters managed to obtain loan against the mortgaged properties — two penthouses and three fully-furnished flats — from a private bank that sanctioned money without verification. The property in question was bought by Sanas from cine legend Shammi Kapoor who had constructed a 16-unit building of penthouses and flats, with six units sold and remaining put on sale.
The premises also houses the famous classic and vintage car museum. According to the police, the offence took place between September 27, 2023, and January 13, 2024, and a case was registered on Wednesday following the complaint by the builder.
Police have booked nine suspects of which five have been identified as Nitin Gajanan Patankar of Kolhapur, Purushottam Gajanan Patankar of Chinchwad, Milind Gosavi of Pune, Prachi Patankar of Ichalkaranji in Kolhapur district and Vivek Sham Shukla of Bibvewadi.
Sanas in his first information report (FIR) stated that he had bought the property from the legendary actor on January 21, 2008, and on completion of the 16 units had given the power of attorney to Vitthal Narayan Bhore for completing sales of the remaining dwellings. On January 13, 2024, the Sanas office received a call from DBS Bank where the caller identified as Vinod Sankpal told Bhore, the call receiver, as to when the former plans to pay one per cent TDS (tax deducted at source) for the property sold on September 29, 2023.
On inquiry, the bank employee sent details of the bank documents, property documents, including a copy of the cheque, on Bhore’s messaging app. Bhore showed it to Sanas who came to the conclusion that a bogus sale deed was executed in the name of Sanas Builders and the DBS Bank account was opened on submission of forged documents wherein the Beverly Hills property – three flats and two penthouses — was found to be sold to one Nitin Gajanan Patankar. Sanas alerted the sub-registration authorities where he sought and obtained copies of the forged documents submitted by the accused at Haveli Number 20 at Ambegaon-based sub-registration office.
“The sale agreement, power of attorney, completion certificate, rubber stamp, letterhead, signatures and also the original agreement copy, were used to make new agreements and the accused ‘managed’ the Haveli Registrar Office and fabricated bogus new documents. The accused also managed to mortgage the flats and penthouses with DBS Bank and obtained a loan of ₹4.33 crore and opened a false account in the Bank of Maharashtra by forging signature, PAN card and Aadhaar card,” said Sanas.
According to the businessman, the market value of the three flats and two penthouses admeasuring 20,000 square feet, is around ₹25 crore.
“If this scam can happen to a prominent person like me then imagine what will be the plight of others. The fraudsters forged documents needed for property mortgage. The sub-registrar office and the two banks did not carry out due diligence which led to this cheating,” Sanas said.
Vikrant Deshmukh, deputy commissioner of police, (EOW and cyber crime), said, “The role of banks and the sub-registrar office will also be investigated.”
Dashrath Shivaji Patil, incharge, Bharti Vidyapeeth Police Station, said, “A cheating case has been lodged and suspects have been booked under Sections 420, 406, 409, 467, 468, 471, 472 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
