A major land scam involving the manipulation of property records along Mumbai's coastline has been uncovered. The scam has affected at least 102 property maps in areas classified as Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and No Development Zone.
It has been found that 102 out of 884 permanent enumeration maps, maintained between 1955 and 1984, were fake. These maps included fabricated city survey numbers, nonexistent buildings, and altered boundaries.
Fake maps were also distributed for RTI queries. It has also been reported that these forged documents were used by BMC officials to approve construction and sales, causing ecological damage and financial losses to the government.
The fraud first came to light when Vaibhav Thakur, a farmer from Malad, filed a complaint in 2021. Thakur noticed unauthorized development on his family farmland and surrounding areas. He found that official records had been changed to reclassify restricted lands as developable zones.
Despite his complaint to the Goregaon police and the BMC, no progress was made. In 2021, Nitin Salunkhe, the deputy superintendent of land records, filed another FIR. He claimed that documents and maps had been falsified between 2012 and 2020 to authorize illegal construction in environmentally sensitive regions.
The issue gained attention in the state assembly in 2022, prompting the formation of a government inquiry committee. When Thakur filed a plea citing government inaction, the committee's findings were presented to the high court.
A special investigation team was formed following a Bombay high court order in October 2024. It was tasked with investigating four FIRs related to the scam. Last week, the SIT arrested four individuals, including two retired government officials.
Under the leadership of Joint Commissioner of Police Lakhmi Gautam, the team arrested four individuals. Among them were real estate agent Imam Shaikh, two retired City Survey Office officers, and contractor Narshim Puttawallu. They were accused of collaborating with BMC and Land Records Department employees to falsify property records.
The scam allegedly involved contractors, government staff, and real estate brokers tampering with land records in Versova, Madh Island, Marve, and other environmentally sensitive zones. 18 government employees from the land records and BMC departments were also interrogated.
The Maharashtra government has directed the director of land records and the principal secretary of urban development to take strict action against those involved. The SIT has taken 884 original maps from the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre in Nagpur.
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