Times of India: Mumbai: Saturday, 28 February 2015.
A developer, six officials of the Slum
Rehabiliation Authority (SRA) and three others have been booked by the Vanrai
police in a case of cheating and forgery. The complainant, Umesh Patel, 63, had
approached a magistrate court at Borivali stating that an attempt was being
made to grab his property located at Goregaon East. On the directions of the
court, the police lodged an FIR. A detailed probe will be conducted before
making any arrests, police said.
Patel, a Juhu resident, owned around 15986 sq
metres of land at Hanuman Tekdi in Goregaon. According to his complaint, he
sold 95% of the land (15219 sq metres) to Indu Constructions through its
proprietor Nandkishore Bhandari. A conveyance deed was registered in 2006. Last
year, Patel decided to sell the balance 767 sq metres of land to an
acquaintance, H Naik. "The deal was ongoing when Naik found out that
Bhandari was laying claim to the entire property, including the balance of 767
sq metres.
"Since the land was covered with slums,
Bhandari had approached the SRA and submitted a scheme for development. On the
basis of documents submitted by Bhandari, the SRA granted him a letter of
intent (LOI) in December 2012," said Patel's counsel, Sachin Mhatre.
Naik then sent a notice to the SRA asking them to
amend the LOI by deleting 767 sq metres of land which he was purchasing from
Patel. The SRA responded that the 7/12 extracts of the entire property were in
Bhandari's name.
"Through an RTI application, Patel accessed
documents related to his deal with Bhandari. He suspected that his signature
was forged on a deed of rectification in 2013," said Mhatre. The police
were not willing to register his complaint. Patel then approached the Borivali
magistrate court. In his complaint, he also accused certain SRA officials of
being hand-in-glove with the developer.
Bhandari's business partner, Hitesh P, refuted the
allegations. "We have filed a complaint against Patel at the Andheri
magistrate court and the matter is still being heard. We had also sent legal
notices to Patel, after learning about his property deal with Naik, but there
was no response from him. We have all the necessary papers to support our
claim," he said.
Officials from the Vanrai police station said they
are in the process of procuring all concerned documents to verify claims made
by both parties.
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