Lacunae in system leading to land frauds
PUNE: On October 4, 2018 a 75-year-old farmer Dagdu Solse approached the Ghodegaon police to lodge a case of cheating and forgery after he found some people had registered a fake sale deed of his land in 2012 at Ghodegaon Sub-Registrar’s office. Ghodegaon police then lodged a case of cheating and forgery.
In another case, on September 21, 2018 Vaishali Raskar, a resident of Shirur, approached the Shirur police after she was cheated by her tenant who modified the 7/12 extract of her land and inserted his name there. A case of cheating was then lodged at Shirur police station. On September 18, 2018 Subhadrabai Kate approached the Lonavla rural police and lodged a case against officials of the Sub-Registrar’s office and three others after the accused registered a fake sale deed of her land in Maval area. Kate told the police that of the five hectares land the sale deed was made of 4.04 hectares and she found that the fake sale deed had signatures of witnesses.
Following which, Lonavla rural police lodged a case of cheating against four persons.
These instances are just a few cases of land frauds in Pune rural area. With the rising land prices, which has grabbed the attention of goons and presence of lacunae in government systems, land frauds continue to plague the district. Officials of the Revenue Department admitted that indeed the frauds are a cause of concern.
“Areas like Maval and Mulshi are famous for land grabbing cases,” said an official of the Revenue Department. Speaking on the issue, another Revenue official said the 7/12 extract is most important and people should keep track of it. “We are providing the 7/12 extract online and people should download the same regularly to check their name, area and other details,” said another Revenue official.
Officials said people get cheated if they buy illegal properties. “People should verify the actual owners of the land while buying land as many a times the fraudster has already sold the land to a third person. The people also get scammed about the type of land. People much check the area of land they are buying and the type of land,” said the official.
City-based Advocate Chetan Bhutada said although the government is providing 7/12 extract online, it is of no use.
“People continue to cheat others by forging documents. The land-related documents should have a bar code system. The bar code would have details of history of the land parcel and while registering documents, the officials can check the details of the history so that there is no fraud,” added Advocate Bhutada.
