When Jaiprakash, a scientist from Hyderabad, came to Gurgaon to check on his property after a gap of six months, he found someone else living there. The new ‘owner' of the two-storey house in Palam Vihar had bought it for R60 lakh from a local property agent, who is now absconding. Three more unsuspecting property owners fell prey to similar frauds in the past month.

The police said property grabbing is big business in Gurgaon and there are at least three cases of such frauds reported from this city every month.

In fact, criminals have given up less lucrative crimes such as robbery and extortion and are turning to land-grabbing in a big way.

“It’s pretty much like a replay of the film Khosla ka Ghosla. There are gangs in Gurgaon who conduct meticulous surveys of properties, identify vacant plots and flats whose owners don't live in the city or are non-resident Indians,” said Alok Mittal, joint commissioner of police, Gurgaon.

“Faking property documents, they sell it to a third party, posing as owners. If a property is sold twice over, they make enough money to keep them going for a year. By the time the owner realises that his property has been sold, these criminals are out of the scene," the officer said.

Businessman Madan Lal Grover, 42, was almost duped in one such deal.

“I had decided to buy a property in Sohna for R2 crore. When the so-called owner of the property, a Delhi resident, met us at the registration office, she presented a voter ID card, which turned out to be forged,” he said.

Grover said he contacted the police. “Otherwise, I would have lost R2 crore.”

There are at least 10,000 plots lying vacant in Gurgaon, with more than 5,500 in DLF City alone.

“In 2010, we received 37 such complaints where someone posing as the owner of a property tried to sell it to an unsuspecting buyer. This also involves 12 cases where the same property has been sold twice over. While in another 25 cases, the registration was done by posing as the owner,” Mittal said.

These 37 cases of property fraud involved transactions of at least R200 crore.

“We can get the property back for the original owner and in cases where the property has been sold twice. But it is difficult to get the money back.

The buyer needs to be cautious while purchasing a property,” Mittal added.

A Guest response

Most of the time newspaper reports indicate some half truth.

In fact some of the property frauds are being organized with some local help. Without the knowledge of some local authorities these things cannot go on.

The report by Faizan Haider does not paint a complete picture.

Vinod Kumar mentioned in the report is the leader of the mafia gang that cut the gate and damaged the doors of the Palam Vihar house to enter it.

Four beedi smoking families forcibly entered the house after damaging the doors and locks. Apparatly none responded to the criminal action that was going on.

This cutting of steel gate, breaking glass, damaging doors etc were going on in several attempts over a period ot time.

Vinod Kumar son of Het Ram runs a firm by name T N Industries in a rented place in Plot no 15, Gully No 3, at Sheetla colony, opposite to Sheetla Mata Mandir, Gurgaon. Vinod Kumar’s residence is given as house no 11, Gully no 6 Sheetla colony, Gurgaon.

The tresspassers of the house were Vinod Kumar Mobile no. 9654580058, 9891275530, 9911723866, landlines 0124 2312580, 0124 2060580. The next trespasser was Iswar Singh mobile no 9911653213. The next trespasser was Surendr Singh mobile number 09891976506. Next trespasser is Raj Pal Singh.

These goons have stolen new electrical fittings stored in the house. Two times the goons were brought back to the house by police, under the pretext of collecting some left over items only to take photograph of the house.

Police also did not register an FIR for trespassing inspite of repeated requests. Newspaper report reflect only the half truth. These goons have filed a civil suit against the scientist whom they have never seen, saying that the actual owner collected Rs 60 lakh in a bag as cash without any record agreeing to sell for Rs 83 lakhs.

They created a fake document with fake signature of one owner of a co owned property with a nameless addressless witness and a fake notary signature. This has been submitted to the court, and surprisingly, based on this fake document, court proceedings have also started against the scientist.

Finally an FIR is registered against the fake document produced by the gang leader Vinod Kumar, when the document was handed over to the scientist from the court.