Two booked for grabbing Rs 50 crore land in Khandala with fake documents

According to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the police, the registrar’s office has lodged a cheating and forgery complaint against Yusuf Mohammed Lakdawala and Mohan R Nair.

Two men were booked for allegedly usurping four acres of land in Khandala, worth more than Rs 50 crore, by submitting forged documents to the registrar’s office. The accused also managed to destroy some of the original documents.

Investigation revealed that the accused, along with some associates , conspired to usurp four acres 38 gunthas of land, estimated to be worth Rs 50 crore. (HT File / Photo used for representational purpose only)

According to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the police, the registrar’s office has lodged a cheating and forgery complaint against Yusuf Mohammed Lakdawala and Mohan R Nair. The complainant, Jitendra Badgujar, is a sub-registrar in Maval taluka.

Badgujar, in his complaint, said the EOW’s housing unit visited him in February seeking some documents in connection with a fraud case he was investigating. The police suspected this was part of a larger case.

Police, however, refused to comment on the case, as the investigations are still in the preliminary stages.

Investigation revealed Lakdawala and Nair, along with some associates , conspired to usurp four acres 38 gunthas of land, marked in official records as survey number 104 (CTS no. 11, 11A, 11B) in Khandala. The land is estimated to be worth Rs 50 crore.

“The accused obtained an ‘affidavit-cum-deed of confirmation’ for the land. This was obtained on the basis of some documents that dated back to 1949 and was found to be fake,” said Badgujar in his complaint.

Badjugar alleged the accused used the registration number of the original document, which is recorded with the Mumbai registrar’s office, to make their crime seem foolproof. He also alleged the accused destroyed some pages from the original document.

As the crime occurred at the office of sub-registrar office in Old Customs House at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai, the first-information report was lodged by the MRA Marg police on April 4 and later transferred to the EOW for further investigation.

The police have booked the accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and section 82 of Indian Registration Act (making false statements, delivering false copies).