District Land Records Inspector sent to four-day police remand in cheating case

On Sunday afternoon, Patel was produced before Surat district court and a seven-day police remand was sought. The Surat court, however, granted remand till Wednesday.

The case came to the fore following a police complaint lodged by Surat resident Azad Ramolia in January 2025. According to the FIR, Ramolia had lodged a complaint accusing Surat city survey office Deputy Director K D Gamit, Surat district Land Record Inspector Anant Patel, an unidentified computer operator, and proprietors of a ghost firm named Samruddhi Corporation of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy. Based on Ramolia’s complaint, a probe was launched into the matter.

A real estate developer by profession, Ramolia, in his complaint alleged that he had purchased two agricultural plots at Dumas and Gavier (refers to areas within the Surat Urban Development Authority region) near Surat International Airport from one Rasik Lallubhai, a resident of nearby Magdalla village in 2016. According to the FIR, Ramolia completed the payment during the time period between October 18, 2016 to July 15, 2017, following which he got the plots registered in his name., “Later, through a local land broker he came to know that his land at Gavier and Dumas is on sale in the market. He checked the documents and found that some Samruddhi Corporation had sold the plots to private persons and illegally entered their names on registration documents,” Ramoliya further added in his complaint. The estimated value of the land is around Rs 2,000 crore, said sources.

After probing the matter, Ramoliya found about involvement of Deputy Director K D Gamit, Land Record Inspector Anant Patel, the computer operator and proprietor of Ghost Samruddhi Corporation in the fraud, said police quoting the FIR. The accused were absconding since the complaint had been registered, said police.
Surat CID Crime Branch Deputy Superintendent of Police A M Captain said, “We have made the first arrest in the case — of Inspector of DLR (District Land Record) with Surat city survey office — while others are still absconding. The accused is under four days of police remand. There are four proprietors of Samrudhhi corporation and they are Naresh Shah, Manhar Kakadiya, Jayprakash Aswani and Loknath Gambhir — all residents of Surat.”

He further said, “The complainant had alleged that the accused proprietor of Samrudhhi Corporation were hands in gloves with Surat city superintendent officials and made fake property cards and entered names of 357 people to whom the plots were sold. We are also looking for the other accused involved in this case. Accused Anant Patel had been staying in Koregaon since last four days.”