13 booked for forging papers to grab Rs 100 crore land

Rajkot: In what could be one of the biggest forgery scams in Saurashtra, Jamnagar police on Wednesday late night booked 13 persons including sub-registrar of properties, for allegedly forging documents to usurp land worth Rs 100 crore.
The accused allegedly forged document of land owned by real estate developer V P Mehta on Ranjitsagar Road in Jamnagar, which is considered to be prime location.
Those booked include Jayesh Patel, Vipul Patel, a resident of Ahmedabad, Indravadan Patel, a resident of Vahelal village in Daskroi taluka of Ahmedabad, Jaman Moliya, a resident of Jamnagar, Mayur Sabhaya, a resident of Chandragadh village in Jamnagar, Ramde Nandaniya, Karna Kasariya, Ramesh Patel, Javed Ahmed Sheikh, lawyer Kalpesh Faliya and sub-registrar B K Bhatt among others.
They were booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code including 384 (extortion), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating and 120B (criminal conspiracy) among others.
The forgery came to light when Jayesh contacted Mehta last week to show him the documents of his land. Jayesh also asked him for settlement. On coming to know about the fraud Mehta lodged a complaint with the A division police station which has handed over the probe to Local Crime Branch in Jamnagar.
According to Mehta's lawyer, Kirit Joshi, the main accused Jayesh is a history-sheeter with at least 18 cases pending against him in Jamnagar city alone.
He along with his accomplices forged four documents of Mehta's land and registered them with sub-registrar office in Jamnagar. "The accused also forged Mehta's son, Amrish Mehta's election ID card by acquiring his old photo and forged his signature. They further prepared a bogus power of attorney of the land and got it registered with the sub-registrar office by showing them as genuine," said Joshi.
"The sub-registrar office should have checked all documents before registering them. This shows their negligence," Joshi added.