Cops probe forged building plan for housing project in Lohegaon village

PUNE: The

Airport police

have launched a probe into an alleged forgery of the

building plan

of a proposed 12-apartment residential project on the

Lohegaon-Dhanori Road

falling under the jurisdiction of the

Lohegaon gram panchayat

.

“An architect, whose name is mentioned in the forged document, has been summoned for questioning on Wednesday,” police inspector Vilas Sonde told TOI on Tuesday. The document, however, did not have the names of the owner of the site and the promoter of the project, he added.

The document carrying forged signatures of the Lohegaon sarpanch, Shweta Kale, and fabricated rubber stamps was submitted to the gram panchayat in April for obtaining a No-Objection Certificate (NOC). The NOC is a key requirement before the plan is moved to Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) for a final approval.

The matter came to light on Monday when the application for the NOC with the building plan and supporting documents was placed before Kale. During scrutiny, Kale realised that the plan had signatures that she had never signed.

She immediately alerted gram panchayat officials, who then matched the rubber stamps on the plan with the ones in their office. After the scrutiny, it was found that it was an act of forgery. Kale then reported the matter to the police. An offence of forgery and cheating was registered.

The police said prima facie, it appears that the perpetrators of the forgery wanted to show that the construction site has been sanctioned by the gram panchayat so they could submit the plan to the PMRDA.

Sonde said, “The forgery appears to have been done six months ago. The suspect(s) wanted to construct a residential building with 12 apartments and to show prospective customers that it has the gram panchayat’s approval, they executed the forgery.”