AHMEDABAD: The CID (crime) branch on Saturday arrested Popular Builders‘ owner Raman Patel in connection with a land scam case dating back nearly four decades.
“Patel was taken into custody on March 1, 2025, at around 9.45pm. The arrest follows an ongoing investigation into a case registered last year at the CID Crime Ahmedabad zone police station under IPC sections 465, 467, 468, 471, 474, and 120(B), all related to forgery and criminal conspiracy,” said an official statement by the CID (crime).
The case stems from a complaint filed by Kanu Thakor in Aug 2024, alleging that Patel, along with seven others, illegally acquired his ancestral land in Makarba in the city by forging documents.
According to the complaint filed with the CID (crime) Ahmedabad unit, the accused forged a death certificate and faked the thumb impression of Thakor’s grandmother to fraudulently transfer the land in 1986. Investigators found that the grandmother actually passed away in 1980, making the 1986 documentation legally impossible.
The CID (crime) presented Patel before the court, seeking his custodial remand for further investigation. The court granted police custody until March 11, said the statement.
This is not Patel’s first run-in with the law. The controversial builder was in jail for around four years with eight cases already registered against him. Notably, his daughter-in-law also lodged a case accusing him of attempted murder. Patel applied for anticipatory bail earlier this year, but his plea was rejected by a local court in Jan.
With Patel now in custody, CID officials believe they can further unravel the complex web of fraud surrounding this decades-old land deal.
