Mumbai: A former woman employee in the collector’s office is allegedly involved in a scam in the Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) department, the Thane city police, which is investigating the case, said.
Earlier, the police arrested a builder following which it has received details about the involvement of three officials working in the collector office’s in the fraud. The police said they would be arrested soon.
On November 12, the Thane police arrested a builder Shyamsunder Agarwal after a real estate agent Manan Gandhi filed a complaint regarding the false paper he had submitted to get an ULC certificate.
The Thane police has arrested one more accused Vishwarup Parkar alias Baban who is an agent in the collector’s office and was in touch with the builder Agarwal for the past few years.
An official from the Thane police, on the condition of anonymity said, “Parkar was constantly in touch with Agarwal and a few other builders too. He used to make false documents with the help of a former employee. One of the former employees is a woman who knew the format of the ULC certificate and she used to help these agents make them. We have seized a typewriter and some fake documents from the home of the former woman employee house and will also arrest her soon.”
The police are yet to arrest three others in the case. Two have been transferred from the Thane office and one is a retired official.
The Thane police unearthed the scam after a builder in the Mira-Bhayander area was found to have used bogus papers to get an exemption from parting with land as mandated by provisions of the ULC (regulation) Act (ULCRA).
The Thane police has found files on five realty projects in Thane district where it is suspected that builder Agarwal had submitted fake ULC certificates to the collector’s office and Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation for their approval.
The police suspect that the officials who have signed and approved the files for the said projects are involved in the scam and will soon question them.
