Three held for mortgaging octogenarian’s house with

Three persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in cheating an 83-year-old woman by taking a loan of Rs 35 lakh from a bank,keeping her bungalow as mortgage with the help of fake documents in 2005.

Complainant Indumati Maruti Awte of Sadashiv Peth had registered an FIR at Bund Garden police station in June this year,in response to which the Economic Offences Wing of the city police arrested three of the seven accused in the case. The arrested have been identified as Sandeep Dnyandev Gawli of Bibvewadi,Ajit Ramchandra Gawli of Thane and Shriniwas Pandurang Bakre of Navi Sangvi. Sandeep’s wife Vinita,his brother Vinay,a lawyer Amol Kajale-Patil and unidentified officers from the legal department of a bank in Bibvewadi are now wanted by the police in the case. EOW officers said that both Sandeep and Vinay have prior cases of cheating registered against them.

Investigating officer senior inspector Deepak Sawant said,“The accused met the complainant early in 2005 and said they wanted to buy her house and took the original papers from her on the pretext of showing them to a lawyer. They made copies of the papers and forged a no-objection certificate from the housing society and made a bogus sale deed at the office of sub-registrar in July 2005 with the help of a woman who impersonated Awte.

“They took a loan of Rs 35 lakh from a bank. The next year,Awte sold the house. When the loan was not repaid by the accused,the incident came to light,” Sawant said. The investigation was done under guidance of DCP Sanjay Shinde.