Land fraud: Cop among four booked in Pune.

A police officer is among the four persons those who were reprimanded for allegedly impersonating a Dubai-based woman and attempting to sell her 10 acres of land in Wagholi area in Pune using forged documents, an official said on Friday.

The accused’s have been identified as former Chandannagar police station senior inspector Rajendra Landge, Anand Lalsahab Bhagat, Shailesh Sadashiv Thombre and Aparna Yashpal Verma alias Archana Patekar, a resident of Islampur in Sangli district, he said.

“Rajendra Landge, who was posted as the senior police inspector at Chandannagar police station during the alleged cheating, colluded with other accused to fraudulently sell the land belonging to Aparna Verma, who resides in Dubai, to Bhagat by projecting Patekar as Verma. The sale was executed using forged documents, including a fake PAN card and Aadhaar card in Verma’s name“, as per official sources.

“Subsequently, in 2023, Anand Lalsahab Bhagat had lodged a complaint against Verma at Chandannagar police station, where accused Landge was in charge, accusing her of selling him land using forged documents. Prima facie, it appears the motive behind registering a case against Verma was to create a legal dispute over the land and pressure the real owner into a settlement“, the official added.

After learning about the complaint filed against her, Verma approached the High Court, he said. “During the subsequent police investigation, it was revealed that Landge had conspired with other accused to carry out the fraud. It was also found that it was not the original Aparna Verma who had duped Bhagat with forged documents. It was Archana Patekar who had impersonated Verma“.

Anand Lalsahab Bhagat along with others have been arrested, and a probe is being carried out to find if more people are involved, the official added.

Maverick News wants to advice its readers, that the concurrence of this fraudulent activities has taken place during the same period, when the most popular Television Crime Show – “Crime Patrol” had telecasted a same incident, in which a HIV Positive patient was murdered for maliciously grabbing a large area of Industrial Land which he owned, and the same land was subsequently sold by impersonations. In this case the offenders registered a Police Complaint to create a legal dispute; but the most efficient Police Team demonstrated to be ‘More Intelligent’ – emphasising once again that “Crime Never Pays”.

Team Maverick