3, including two lawyers, held for ₹2cr land scam

Haryana crime police has arrested three persons, including two advocates, for fraudulently selling two acres of land in village Islampur in Sector 38, acquired by Haryana Sahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), to a private company, thereby causing loss worth crores of rupees to the state exchequer, said the police on Friday.

Muhammad Akil, DGP (crime), Panchkula, said the land in question was acquired by HSVP in 1993 and sold by the suspects to a private company for ₹2 crore on the basis of forged documents and witnesses. “Two of the suspects, Rohit Thakaran and Ajay Chaudhary hatched a plan and got the land transferred in the name of the latter by showing fake witnesses, impersonating the original owners of the property,” Akil said. Akil said they arrested Thakran and advocates Chaman Lal Arora and Subhash Chand Arora, who were witnesses in the sale deed registration.

Ajay Choudhary is still untraceable, said the police.

The police said the matter came to their notice when one of the victims, Murti Devi, filed a complaint in this regard. Based on the complaint, state crime branch (Gurugram unit) arrested the suspects. The victim had approached the police after a SK Sharma, a Sector 39 resident, highlighted the alleged fraud in 2020 through an RTI.

Akil said the notification for acquisition of around 2.5-acre land owned by a person named Mauji Lal of Islampur was issued in March 1990 and the acquisition by HSVP was completed in March 1993. But mutation of the land was not carried out and the land continued to be in the name of Mauji Lal in the revenue records. “In 1998, Mauji Lal died. He was survived by wife Pasto Devi and three daughters – Murti, Bala and Laxmi. The family got a compensation of ₹24 lakh from HSVP in different installments,” he said.

In 2014, the suspects with the help of revenue officials illegally replaced the name of Mauji Lal with his wife Pasto Devi and her three daughters. The police said Ajay Chaudhary then appeared before the Punjab and Haryana High Court as Ajay Thakran, impersonating the non-existent grandson of Mauji, and managed to release a portion of the land in June 2014 through a release deed. The deed was then allegedly executed by a woman impersonating Mauji’s daughter, Laxmi. The alleged impersonator then transferred the land in the name of Ajay Chaudhary.

Akil said Chaudhary transferred ₹29 lakh out of ₹2 crore to the account of Rohit Thakran, the suspected mastermind of the case. Dharamvir Singh, DSP (state crime), said that Murti said that she along with her two sisters, had taken compensation for their father’s land in Islampur village.

“They had not signed any release deed in favour of anyone,” he said.