Bengaluru: Gang of five held for selling sites using forged documents

BENGALURU: A gang of five persons, including three women, was arrested for allegedly creating forged documents for a site at HMT Layout, Vidyaranyapura, and selling it for Rs 65 lakh.
The accused are Shirly Jose alias Faiz Sulthana, 33, of RT Nagar, her friend Kabir Ali alias Babu, 35, of Sahakar Nagar, Jagadish alias Yogesh, 40, Jayamma alias M Kalpana, 50, and Pooja alias Vushali, 26, all residents of Vidyaranyapura.
According to sources, the site belonged to retired HMT employee Suvarnamma D, 67, a resident of RT Nagar. She purchased it in 1988 but neither developed nor visited it frequently. Babu, a real estate agent, learned about this and hatched a plan to steal the site.
He collected the property papers and hired Jayamma to pose as the owner. He created fake Aadhaar, voter ID and other papers in Suvarnamma’s name. He and Faiz Sulthana convinced Jayamma’s daughter Pooja to pose as Suvarnamma’s daughter Kalpana.
The gang registered the property in Kalpana’s name through a gift deed on June 16, 2020. It was projected as a property gift from Suvarnamma. Later, the same property was registered in Yogesh’s name through a gift deed on October 5, 2020, by showing Yogesh as Kalpana’s husband. Babu found a buyer and sold it on August 24, 2021 for Rs 65 lakh.
The fraud came to light in April 2022 when the original owner availed an encumbrance certificate and khata of her property to take a home loan. She was shocked to find her site had been sold to several people. She approached Anoop A Shetty, DCP (northeast), and he directed Vidyaranyapura police to probe the matter.
Police registered a case on April 4 and arrested the accused. Preliminary probe revealed Babu and Faiz Sulthana had also created forged documents for a site in Sanjaynagar and sold it.