Land-grabbing racket busted after attempt to sell prime property in Greater Kailash

An FIR was registered at Greater Kailash police station and later transferred to the Crime Branch for specialised investigation.

Following a sustained investigation, a Crime Branch team arrested three accused — Ashish Chaudhary, Vineet Kumar Saigal and Dilip Kumar Pandey — on January 22, said officers.

“During the investigation, it was revealed that the accused hatched a systematic conspiracy to grab immovable properties, particularly those owned by elderly persons. The gang would identify such properties and prepare forged ownership documents, including a purported release deed, to create false claims of title. Subsequently, the accused would allegedly file civil suits in various courts to lend legitimacy to their fraudulent claims and to facilitate illegal takeover of the properties,” said DCP Crime Branch Aditya Gautam.

Investigators also found that fictitious witnesses were cited in court proceedings, some of whom had already died, while others were shown with incorrect or non-existent addresses.

In the case under investigation, the accused allegedly prepared two separate sets of forged documents to stake claim over the complainant’s property and attempted to sell it to unsuspecting buyers. The fraud came to light after a relative alerted the complainant about a false classified advertisement issued by one of the accused, said police.

A case has been filed under BNS sections 329(4) (criminal trespassing), 336(3) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable securities, wills, or documents authorising the transfer of property or money), 340(2) (fraudulent or dishonest use of a forged document or electronic record), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy). During the police custody remand, original documents, which were allegedly forged, were recovered and seized.

Police said one of the accused is a practicing advocate, while another has prior criminal antecedents.
Officers said the investigation is ongoing to identify other accomplices, trace similar cases and ascertain whether more properties were targeted using the same modus operandi.