MUMBAI: Two fresh first information reports (FIRs) of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and forgery have been registered based on complaints from owners of two hutments alleging that the Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) promoter Rakesh Wadhwan along with his office staff and real estate agents have forged their signatures and created fake documents to acquire the rights for redevelopment in Bharat Nagar slum.
Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) police registered the case on court’s order based on the complaint filed before it by the two hutments–Fariuddin Shaikh (68) from Bharat Nagar and Hamidabano Shaikh (55) from Maharashtra Nagar (both in Bandra East).
According to the complainant, HDIL and its associates created a fake sale deed, affidavit, and power of attorney in February and March 2006 respectively in the two cases. TOI has the two FIRs that were registered on Wednesday. The first FIR registered on Fariduddin’s complaint showed agent Usman Shaikh, HDIL promoter Rakesh Kumar Wadhwan, and two others as accused while in the second Nasrin Shaikh, Wadhwan, and two others were shown as accused.
According to the FIRs based on Fariduddin and Hamidabano’s complaint, “In April 2006 HDIL got the contract for redevelopment of Bharat Nagar and Maharashtra Nagar and signed an agreement with me for permanent alternate accommodation. Between April 2006 to June 2011, HDIL paid Rs5 lakhs as rent for transit stay. Since 2012, we have been denied transit rent. Repeatedly we followed up with the SRA authority complaining about it and finally during the hearing in 2018 we learned that our hutment’s documents were forged and made in the name of Usman Shaikh and Nasrin Shaikh respectively and through the fake documents, HDIL showed that they had purchased the ownership from them and had been paying rent to the two who are accused in the cheating and forgery.”
A case under the Indian Penal Code sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 423 (Dishonest or fraudulent execution of deed of transfer containing false statement of consideration), 463 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (Using as genuine a forged document) against Wadhwan and others. The case has been registered against Rakesh Kumar Wadhwan barely two months after he got bail on medical grounds in November 2023 in a Rs 4,300-crore Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam case.
A BKC police officer said that they had sought details and documents related to the case from the SRA authority before initiating action. The two FIRs have been registered based on the court order after two hutments approached it with the complaint.
