Mumbai Land Scam: Maps of land records along Mumbai coastline forged for construction in coastal, no development zone, says SIT

The alleged fraud came to light in 2016 when Vaibhav Thakur, a resident of Erangal in the Madh Island area of Mumbai, reported illegal construction on CRZ land near his house. While in 2021, four FIRs were registered by the police, no action was taken by either police or BMC.

In 2022, the issue was discussed in assembly and the government formed a committee to probe the allegations that the coastal maps of Mumbai were illegally altered to enable construction in the eco-sensitive areas.

The committee report to the government said fake documents were used to show that some construction on eco sensitive plots were there before 1964 so that they are not demolished. However, when no action followed, Thakur approached the Bombay High Court last year.

In October 2024, the high court formed an SIT under additional commissioner of police Shashi Meena to probe the FIRs registered earlier. On December 5, the SIT showed an interim report to the court on the action taken by them which was to the satisfaction of the Bombay High Court. The probe has found that of the 884 maps of land records, 165 so far have been found forged.

Sources said during the period of the probe, the SIT arrested four persons in the case, including two retired officials of the city survey office, a contractor Narshim Puttawallu and estate agent Imam Shaikh. Puttawallu is an accused in all four FIRs. He was arrested in another FIR earlier this month.

An official said they have issued summons to several officials from the BMC department, the city survey office and villagers in Erangal among others.

“The petition filed in the court contains all the details of the allegations. We are verifying these allegations and taking the necessary legal action in the case under the directions of the Bombay High Court,” an official said.