Greater Noida: As the price of land shoots up around Jewar airport in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Budh Nagar, the land mafia and scammers are getting active.
The latest case came to light after the Sector-63 Noida police arrested a man on January 12 for embezzling Rs 24 crore in the name of selling land near Jewar airport.
The accused has been identified as 32-year-old Aqil, a resident of Rabupura n Jewar tehsil. The search for 15 other accused in this case is going on.
The accused had defrauded many people by preparing fake and forged land documents. The police said that the accused had defrauded four people from Noida and Ghaziabad to the tune of Rs 24 crore in the name of getting land.
In the complaint, victim Gaurav Sharma said that he does business with Gopesh Rohatgi, Yatish Aggarwal and Shilpi Aggarwal. In early 2022, all four met Sachin Bhati and Ravindra Sharma. Both of them claimed to be members of big landlords and political families of Jewar. They introduced the four people to other people and claimed that they had a large piece of agricultural land near the under-construction airport in Jewar.
The accused said that they would provide 100 to 200 bighas of agricultural land. They also claimed that they had a large team of brokers, advocates, patwaris and tehsildars. The victims said that in 2022, they paid about Rs 24 crore to the accused to purchase the land. In return, the accused gave fake revenue documents.
When the victims asked for a copy of the transfer of the land purchased from the accused in the revenue records, they started making excuses. Not only this, the accused also made the victims witnesses by getting them to sign some papers.
Further investigation revealed that the purchased land did not exist. All the documents were fake. The accounts opened in banks were opened on the basis of forged documents. The accused deposited the cheques taken from the victims into the bank accounts and withdrew the cash within a few days. When the victims asked the accused to return the money, they were threatened with dire consequences.
In this incident, a case has been registered against Sachin Bhati, Ravindra Sharma, Dheeraj Sharma, Sonu Sharma, Rishi Pal, Aas Mohammad, Mohammad, Aqil, Sakir, Vineet Kumar Gupta, Mudassir, Irshad, Salauddin, Tariqat Khan, Narendra and other unknown persons.
December 26, 2023: The Yamuna Expressway Authority freed the authority’s about 150000 square meter of land worth Rs 150 crore from encroachments by running a campaign against the land mafia which had illegally captured the authority’s land and was selling it to people.
December 21, 2023: The district administration takes action after it came to their notice that some land mafias are illegally occupying the land acquired by Noida Airport.
Accountant Pratyush Pathak working in Jewar tehsil under the Rabupura police station has filed a case against seven land mafias. It is being said that the report will also be submitted to the Yamuna Authority.
While registering the FIR, Pratyush Pathak said that Nagla, Hukum Singh, Majra and Karauli Bangar villages currently fall in Jewar tehsil. Land has been acquired here for the Jewar airport project. Pathak said in his complaint that people like Rajkumar, Pushpendra, Rajiv Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar, Jagjit, Dhirendra and Virendra and others are encroaching on this land.
December 5, 2023: The Yamuna Authority, taking major action, freed land worth about Rs 236 crore from the possession of the land mafia. In Khair, Aligarh, the Authority officials, with the help of the Khair police and Aligarh officials, have demolished the illegal construction carried out by the land mafia and freed the land from encroachment.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath came to Greater Noida on December 8, 2023 and instructed the officials to take strict action against the land mafia. He said, “Illegal encroachment is becoming a menace. There is a need to take strict action against land mafias.”
–IANS