The Bombay High Court has overseen the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was ordered to investigate four FIRs registered in 2021 related to a land scam in the north coast of the city and arrested four people, including two retired officials of the City Survey office.
The SIT has alleged the involvement of current and former officials of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Land Survey Department, estate agents and contractors among other allegations in tampering with recorded maps showing the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) and No Development Zone (NDZ). ) as potential development sites along the Mumbai coast.
The alleged fraud came to light in 2016 when Vaibhav Thakur, a resident of Erangal in Mumbai’s Madh Island area, reported illegal construction on CRZ land near his home. While in 2021, four FIRs were registered by the police, no action was taken by the police or the BMC.
In 2022, the issue was discussed in a meeting and the government set up a committee to investigate allegations that Mumbai’s coastal maps were illegally altered to build in eco-sensitive areas.
The committee’s report to the government said that forged documents were used to show that some environmentally sensitive buildings existed before 1964 so that they could not be demolished. However, when no action was taken, Thakur approached the Bombay High Court last year.
In October 2024, the high court constituted an SIT under police commissioner Shashi Meena to investigate the previously registered fires. On December 5, the SIT presented an interim report to the court about the action they had taken which satisfied the Bombay High Court. The investigation found that out of 884 world record maps, 165 have so far been found to be falsified.
Sources said that during the investigation, the SIT arrested four people in the case, including two retired officials of the city inspection office, contractor Narshim Puttawallu and real estate agent Imam Shaikh. Puttawallu is the accused in all the four fires. He was arrested in another FIR earlier this month.
The official said they have issued summons to several officials of the BMC department, city inspection office and residents of Erangal among others.
“The petition filed in court contains all the details of these allegations. We are verifying these allegations and taking appropriate legal action in this case under the orders of the Bombay High Court,” said the official.
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