Govt officer who helped man with fake papers held

MUMBAI: A state government employee was arrested by the economic offences wing (EOW) of Mumbai police on Tuesday for helping a fraudster prepare forged documents in order to grab a huge plot in Andheri.
Sanjay Kasare (39), who is a property searcher, has been remanded in police custody till Friday. Kasare is the sixth accused to be arrested in the fake documentation scam.Earlier, the police had arrested Ashok Jaiswar, Babulal Jaiswar, Pramod Trimbhkar, Sameer Patel and Yatin Prabhavalkar.
The police believe Kasare may have helped many people obtain fake property papers. The case pertains to a complaint filed by HDIL, a construction company which in 2008 had brought a huge plot of land on Andheri-Kurla road from Arjundas Meghraj Thakur. When HDIL applied to the suburban registrar for transferring the property in its name, they were informed that one Yatin Prabhavalkar had come up with similar claims. Prabhavalkar said the land belongs to Hemant Waradkar who had given him the power of attorney. Prabhavalkar claimed Waradkar had purchased the land from Arjundas Thakur who died in June 2004.
The HC then ordered a probe by the crime branch. The officials found that the death certificate of Thakur that Prabhavalkar produced was fake as Thakur was still alive. Even as the probe was on, two others—Manojkumar Thakur and Rakesh Thakur staked claim to the property.
Investigations revealed the death certificates submitted by all claimants were fake. Meanwhile, Prabhavalkar submitted documents claiming that Waradkar had purchased the property from Thakur’s father in 1979 and he even submitted registration documents. Registration department officials were summoned by the court which said the documents were genuine but such thing does not exist in their records. The police are likely to arrest some BMC officials who had issued the fake death certificates.