NRI's bungalow sold
by Gardener's sons & withdrawn Rs 16 lakh from
his bank
MUMBAI , December 27, 2005
S Ahmed Ali
TNN
Land-grabbing can't get more brazen than this. A gardener's
two sons gained possession of a plush Carmichael Road
bungalow in the absence of its NRI owner and then sold
it by forging documents.
The Mumbai police has now launched a hunt for the
duo who were assisted by a security guard of the same
property.
The bungalow, named Hormuzd Villa, sprawls across
more than 4,000 square feet and is worth crores. The
land-grab came to light when the original owner, an
NRI businessman called Rustom Sam Boyce, returned
from Singapore in August this year.
He had received a call from a friend in Mumbai who
informed him that his bungalow was undergoing renovation.
Boyce immediately flew down to check—and got
a nasty shock. He was told by guards that the property
was now owned by Sanjeevsingh Chaddha.
Since Chaddha was away, Boyce managed to gain access
to the inside of the house. He found his belongings
had been ransacked and the safe had been broken into...
Important papers, including cheque books
and property agreements, as well as jewellery were
missing. Someone had even withdrawn Rs 16 lakh from
his bank accounts by forging his signature.
Boyce immediately filed a police complaint with the
Gamdevi police station. Since it involved a fraud
at several levels, joint commissioner of police Arup
Patnaik transferred the case to the EOW.
"I was myself shocked that such a crime had
taken place in a posh locality in the city,"
he said.
The investigation revealed that the property had
been illegally transferred by the family of the bungalow's
erstwhile gardener-cum-caretaker.
In the 1980s, when the Boyce family had shifted to
Singapore, they had appointed an old member of the
staff, Krishna Parab, to take care of the house.
After Parab's death in 1984, his wife and sons had
refused to vacate their quarters. Boyce's mother,
who lived in Mumbai, had initiated legal proceedings
against the Parabs, who were then forced to vacate
the premises...
Soon after the eviction order, Parab's sons Krishna
and Vijay teamed up with a security guard at the bungalow
and managed to forge documents to prove they held
the power of attorney for the property.
The villa was shown to have been leased out by the
trio to Chaddha. Soon afterwards, they prepared an
agreement to show the property was being purchased
by Chaddha from Mishra and the Parabs.
The agreement showed the three had received money
from Chhadha through ABN Amro Bank—Krishna was
shown to have received Rs 20 lakh, Vijay Rs 15.5 lakh
and Mishra Rs 15.5 lakh.
To build a waterproof case, Chaddha even filed a
suit in 2005 in a civil court against Boyce, Krishna
and Vijay Parab, stating that he (Chaddha) was the
owner and the trio were trying to grab the bungalow.
The FIR says the court, in an interim order, banned
all three from entering the Carmichael Road premises...
The police have now arrested four of the accused
who abetted the scam but the Parab brothers and Chaddha
are absconding.
They have been identified as Pravin Singh (34), Prabhat
Sharma (47), Surendrakumar Mishra (33) and Jagdish
Purohit (34).
Pravin Singh was the branch manager of the Samta
Sahakari Bank (Santacruz) who helped the trio to open
accounts under fictitious names.
Prabhat Sharma was a clerk of the same bank. The
police have also recovered a pay order of Rs 15 lakh
in the name of Mishra and also sealed two flats that
he had purchased in Kannamwar Nagar in Vikhroli and
Charkop in Malad.
