Cops for digitisation of property records to check fraud cases

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has written to the government for digitisation of all registered properties in the capital to check rising cases of fraud.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has written to the government for digitisation of all registered properties in the capital to check rising cases of fraud.

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According to Delhi police statistics, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is probing around 19 cases of multiple mortgage of property and 30 cases of fake sale deeds.

The police are trying to push for a software to enable the owner to automatically receive an email or SMS alert whenever any transaction or deal is attempted on his property, knowingly or without his knowledge.

In an advisory to the principal secretary (home) of the Delhi government, additional CP (EOW), Arun Kampani suggested maintaining a database of properties whereby all transactions are registered with the sub-registrars.

“The date should be available on the web site of the sub-registrar concerned with read-only access to the public,” the letter said.

Police have written to the RBI to ask banks to provide web access to the central registry database (which keeps the record of mortgaged properties) to the sub-registrar’s office.

“The mortgaged properties database can be integrated with the sub-registrar offices so that the public can be cautioned at the time of the registration of sanctioned documents of a mortgaged property,” said an EOW officer.

“We have requested the home department to consider sending ‘One Time Password’ (OTP) facility to potential buyers during his/her attempt to verify the ownership of the property,” said a senior officer in EOW.

At present, no mechanism is in place to verify mortgaged property or documents.

“Hundreds of cases involving sale of one property to more than one person are pending investigation. There are cases of mortgaged properties being sold by owners,” said the officer.

Conmen are able to sell mortgage properties because the details are available only with the banks and not with the sub-registrar’s office.

Jagmohan Singh Rawat, now a retired BSF inspector, used his life savings to buy a semi-constructed property in Dwarka Mor in 2007. Later, another man claimed the property and slapped a case which is in court to date.

Taj Hassan, special commissioner of police (crime), said the suggestions can curb the rising number of property frauds in Delhi. “Evolving a system to have an online registry of properties in Delhi will certainly help the public from becoming victims of real estate conmen,” said Hassan.