MUMBAI: A special investigation team (SIT) probing the manipulation of documents of plots in coastal regulation zones (CRZ) and no development zones (NDZ) in Mumbai has arrested a city survey officer and a senior clerk from the city survey office in Goregaon for allegedly facilitating the tampering of land records to aid builders and developers in grabbing properties.
The crime branch’s unit-2 arrested city survey inspector Sambhuraje BabanRoa Wable (47), and unit 7 arrested senior clerk Sanjay Dhodke (54) for manipulating the CRZ maps. Wable was the complainant in one of the FIRs lodged against the land grabbers. Both the accused were produced before a court and sent to police custody.
Earlier, police had arrested civil contractor Narashim Puddhavallu; tout Mohammed Usman; two office assistants in the land records office, Devidas Jadhav and Jayesh Gupta; retired constable Soma Marade; and Imam Shaikh.
According to the probe, eight original graphs in the city survey office showed fake constructions as on Dec 31, 2019, with Wable issuing duplicate copies of these maps, which bore the Goregaon municipal land survey officer’s signature. “Investigation showed that Wable signed 22 forged maps,” said an officer. Wable’s lawyer, Sudhir Bhardawaj, told the court that his client had been framed.
The SIT, formed following HC’s order, has found that around 165 maps of land in Marve, Madh island, Versova and other CRZ spots had been manipulated.
The tampering was first flagged by a farmer from Malad, Vaibhav Thakur, who owns ancestral agricultural land. He lodged an FIR at in 2016 against illegal construction on his plot and adjoining lands after finding that govt records had been forged to classify CRZ and NDZ plots as developable zones. But, local authorities had failed to make much headway.
