RAJKOT: A racket involving the illegal acquisition of properties, mostly land, by forging property sale deeds was uncovered by the city police, leading to the arrest of a computer operator supervisor from the sub-registrar’s office.
The arrested accused, Jaydeep Zala, along with his two accomplices, targeted properties whose owners were either deceased, living abroad, or had left the land unused for years. Police revealed that the trio destroyed original documents, deleted scanned copies of handwritten deeds, and created forged sales deeds that were uploaded into the official revenue data system.
Zala worked as the supervisor of data entry operators for the last 10 years.
Police are on the lookout for Harsh Saheliya, alias Harsh Soni, a former data entry operator, and Kishan Chavda, a lawyer.
“The accused colluded to tamper with sub-registrar office records for personal financial gains,” an officer at Pradhyuman Nagar police station said. “They destroyed original deeds, erased computer records, and uploaded fake documents to transfer ownership illegally,” said police.
In at least 20 cases of land in Magharwada village, located on the city’s outskirts, the accused forged sale deeds, tampered with software, and forged Aadhaar and PAN cards to complete the fraudulent transfers.
During the investigation, police found that the racket was flourishing between Feb 2023 and May 2024.
The scam came to light when some documents from the collector office were sent to the mamlatdar’s Rajkot West zone office. The same set of papers was then sent to the sub-registrar office. During the verification process, it was noticed that modifications were made in the scanned handwritten records from 1972, and there were alterations in the old records.
Sub-registrar Atul Desai then filed a complaint naming the three.
Police sources said those people who purchased these properties by conniving with the trio will also be arrested.
