Mira Bhayandar: The Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police have arrested a senior citizen for allegedly impersonating a retired school teacher to grab his multi-crore property more than 22 years after he passed away in Tamil Nadu’s Salem city on 10, April, 1998.
The accused impersonator who has been identified as- Chandrakant Prabhudas Ghelani was arrested from Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Saturday by a team from the Bhayandar police station.
Ghelani impersonated the deceased land owner-Pravin Hargovindas Shah and on the virtue of fabricated documents and forged signatures managed to prepare documents and sold off the multi-crore property (1618.87 square meters) to a trust by executing a registered sale deed on 20, February, 2020- more than 22 years after the original land owner had passed away.
The matter came to light when the kin of the deceased who are the legal heirs approached the revenue office in order to get their names inked in the 7/12 land extract records. They were shocked to learn that land had been fraudulently sold for Rs.5.51 lakh to the trust apparently by a gang who availed the services of Ghelani to impersonate the deceased land owner.
Based on the complaint filed by Pravin Shah’s nephew-Deepak Shashikant Shah, an offence under the relevant sections of the IPC was registered at the Bhayandar police on 20, March, 2024 against four people including the impersonator.
Apart from producing the original land documents and his uncle’s death certificate, the complainant also informed the police that the impersonator had signed the sale deed and other papers in Gujarati language whereas his uncle always signed in English. Apart from the photo of the impersonator, the police had no solid clues regarding his real name or address.
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A police team led by senior police inspector-Vivek Sonawane activated their informer network and after relentlessly working on the case for more than five months finally apprehended Ghelani from Ahmedabad. Not ruling out the involvement of a professional gang of imposters, the police are on the lookout for the actual conspirators.
Meanwhile Ghelani was remanded to police custody till 28, August after he was produced before the district sessions court, Thane.
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