Two more land-grabbing cases registered

AHMEDABAD: The officials of special investigation team (SIT) in Ahmedabad rural received two more cases of land grabbing on Monday and Tuesday where the land worth crores was sold or claimed by third parties. SIT receives more than five cases of such nature every month, said investigators.SIT officials said that in the first case, Auchitya Thakkar, a resident of Harihar Bungalows in Thaltej, has filed a complaint against Hasmukh Patel, his son Mitul Patel, both residents of Ognaj and buyer Jignesh Patel.According to his complaint, Thakkar-owned Vishwa Corporation, with office in Sarkhej, had acquired land in the nearby areas. However, he came to know recently that the land belonging to him was sold to Jignesh Patel by Hasmukh Patel in 2008 on the basis of forged documents.The sellers had used the fake power of attorney and ownership documents to sell the land. Thakkar has provided his ownership documents to the investigators.In second incident, Rajnikant Patel, a resident of Janu village in Daskroi, has filed a complaint against Suryakant Patel, his wife Nirmala, both residents of Nava Vadaj and Dhanji Bharwad, a resident of Odhav, for grabbing his land.“As per his complaint, Patel owns two plots bearing survey numbers 535 and 541. He came to know in July 2010 that the people named in the case had shown the land on their names and appointed Bharwad to look after the property. Shocked, he had tried to
talk to them to sort the issue out. When everything failed, he resorted to filing a police complaint in the matter,” said an SIT official.M M Malek, deputy superintendent of police, Sarkhej and coordinator of SIT, told TOI that in both the cases, the documents will be verified. “Most of the cases have taken place between 2007 and 2010 where the intermediaries and fraudsters sold the properties using forged documents. In many cases,
people come to know of the fraud when they check on the property or revenue records. We have made it mandatory for the revenue officials to go through the land’s history,” he said.