Delhi: Where there’s no will, there are many heirs

NEW DELHI: Where there’s a will, there is a way. But the problem with Krishna Khanna’s case is that she left no legacy papers behind at the time of her death in 2014. For six years since, the Economic Offences Wing has been dealing with people laying claim to properties worth several crores of rupees that the elderly woman left behind in various parts of the city.The cops believed at one point they had closed the case until the documents were proved to be counterfeits.
Khanna was 65 years old when she died in 2014 without a legal heir. Having lived alone most of her life, her last rites were conducted by Arvind Dhingra, the owner of a grocery store who ensured she never lacked for daily essentials. With no known heir, the properties went into the Delhi government’s custody.
In 2017, Dhingra produced a will and claimed to be Khanna’s heir and the court too decided the probate in his favour. The case was seemingly closed until a former Delhi government administrator of properties confided his suspicions about foul play.
The said will that Dhingra proffered was sent for forensic and handwriting analysis, and the signature of the dead woman was deemed to be forged. The police arrested Dhingra on charges of forgery, cheating and misleading a court and the search began anew to find Khanna’s legal heirs.
O P Mishra, joint CP, Economic Offences Wing, revealed, “A team led by inspector Bijay Kumar has been formed to go through the claims to the woman’s estate. The documents at the deceased’s house are also being scrutinised.”
Police have requested Delhi government not to allow the sale of Khanna’s properties and have also sealed her bank accounts. A probe is under way to determine whether money was withdrawn from these accounts by any of the claimants.
Khanna had inherited the properties from her parents and three elder brothers who all died 30-40 years ago. These included houses in Kailash Colony, Pitampura, Gulabi Bagh, Uttam Nagar, Vikaspuri and Sarai Julena and fixed deposits of several lakh rupees.
In court, Dhingra claimed he used to take care of the woman and had admitted her to a private hospital when she suffered a heart attack in January 2014. He insisted that Khanna dictated the will to him before her death in the hospital and produced a hand-written note to prove his claim in court.
But the cops found from the hospital that during her entire stay there, Khanna had been unconscious. When Dhingra stuck to his claims, police filed a writ for the production of the original copy of the will. After some persuasion, Dhingra agreed to submit the document, which, on subsequent forensic examination, was found to be faked.