2 revenue officials, ghost company named in Surat fake property scam case

The case was lodged late on Thursday based on the complaint of Azad Ramolia who runs a real estate business in Ankleshwar and Hansot of Bharuch. Ramolia, who resides in Ghoddod Road and owns land worth Rs 2,000 crore across Dumas and Gavier villages near the airport, alleged that his attempts to register an offence did not elicit any action from the Surat Collectorate and the city police commissioner’s office.

According to the FIR, the complainant purchased the land between October 28, 2016 and July 15, 2017 from Rasik Lallubhai, a farmer and Magdalla resident. The land was registered in 2017.

However, in March 2022, a land broker named Jignesh allegedly approached him with a property card with the survey number of Ramolia’s Dumas plot and asked if he was interested in purchasing the land. The complainant eventually learnt that somebody had illegally made property cards of his land at Dumas and Gavier, divided it as housing plots, before adding names of around 135 people as the owners. The land was in the market for sale.

“The accused builders and the aides of Samruddhi Corporation had obtained property cards of the land owned by Ramolia, with help of the accused revenue department officials. (Samruddhi) Corporation made plots on the land and sold it off to different persons. The sale amount was later deposited in the bank account of Samruddhi Corporation,” the FIR states. The accused had neither taken construction permission nor were the plans passed with the Surat Municipal corporation, the complainant alleged.

Ramolia’s complaint stated that he had never applied for property cards. Suspecting the involvement of revenue department officials, Ramolia submitted an application with the Surat Collector and Mamlatdar in August 2022, but no action followed. He then knocked on the doors of the Economic Cell of the Surat Police Commissioner’s Office in March 2023. However, the inaction continued.

He then decided to approach the Additional Director General of Police of CID Crime and Railways at Gandhinagar who registered the case Thursday.

“Majorly, the offence registered is in relation to the property cards made illegally and the plots being sold to private parties. Currently, we are collecting evidence and finding out who the accused are and their roles. We will also investigate who is running Samruddhi Corporations,” said investigating officer and Surat CID crime police inspector, P B Sanghani.