Mumbai: A retired employee of the City Survey Office has been arrested in a multi-crore land scam in Malad (west). The arrested accused, Devdas Jairam Jadhav (64), is the third to be apprehended by a special investigation team of the crime branch set up by the high court to look into the alleged forged documents involving the City Land Survey Office,
Last month, police arrested Narsim Puttavallu, a tout, for allegedly manipulating the use of the ‘No Development Zone’ property in the suburbs.
The scam involved alleged unauthorised construction on ancestral agricultural plots classified as ‘No Development Zone’ under Coastal Regulation Zone norms. The second accused is already in judicial custody, while investigations to track down other conspirators continue.
Jadhav allegedly colluded with the main accused, Rupa Mehta, and other officials to manipulate original land records, said the police.
The complainant, Vaibhav Thakur, owns ancestral agricultural land in Erangal, Malad (west), along with his family. The land includes several plots. Thakur discovered unauthorised construction on these plots in 2016. When he inquired at the site, workers directed him to a woman identified as Rupa Mehta, accused no. 1, and was allegedly constructing illegally on the plots.
Despite complaints to BMC and Malvani police station in 2016, no immediate action was taken. Thakur obtained maps from the City Survey Office in 2018 and 2019, which revealed alterations to the original drawings. The altered maps falsely showed existing constructions on plots that were previously marked as vacant.
” On Sept 28, 2018, the land records sent a report containing property documents which had alterations and edited the ‘No Development Zone’ wordings,” according to a crime branch officer. “Based on this, Thakur then gave a complaint of forgery against the unidentified officials of land records.”
The Goregaon police in 2021 registered an offence of cheating, forgery, breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy, and without arresting Rupa Mehta, filed the chargesheet against her and continued the probe. Later this year, Thakur filed a criminal writ petition in high court, seeking to transfer the probe from Goregaon to the crime branch, which set up the special investigation team.
Police said that the scam implicates many, including govt officials, for forging documents to facilitate illegal construction.
