Daijiworld Media Network - Mapusa

Mapusa, Jul 4: Police in Goa's Mapusa have registered a criminal case against six individuals, including a real estate development firm, for allegedly forging property records and impersonating a landowner who died more than five decades ago in an attempt to illegally acquire an 1,850-square-metre plot at Pomburpa in Bardez.

The alleged fraud surfaced after advocate Gajendranath Usgaonkar, a resident of Alto-Porvorim, filed a complaint with the police.

According to investigators, the accused allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy before July 2021 in Mapusa by impersonating the original owner, Francisco Do Rosario Fernandes, who passed away on November 2, 1970, in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Police alleged that forged ownership and transaction documents were prepared in the deceased landowner's name and subsequently used to transfer rights over the property to the accused. The alleged forgery is said to have cheated the legal heirs and deprived them of their rightful inheritance.

Those named in the First Information Report (FIR) include Shantaram Dessai, Dattaram Dessai and Kashibai Dessai, all residents of Ambedem in Sattari; Ganpat Parab and Jyoti Parab of Dattawadi, Mapusa; A Developers and Promoters; along with other unidentified persons.

Police have registered the case under Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 465, 466, 467, 468 and 471 (various offences relating to forgery and use of forged documents), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

Investigating officer PSI Viraj Korgaonkar said notices under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita have been issued to the accused as part of the ongoing investigation.