Mumbai: House of cards probe widens

AMID talks that the Economic Offences Wing will take over the Rs 3000crore housing scam case the Virar police have filed three different FIRs against seven builders for unauthorised constructions using fake documents Meanwhile the son of an accused in the Rs 3000crore scam case claims his father a maker of rubber stamps is innocentThe three new FIRs were filed on Wednesday night for the construction of three residential societies without required permissionsmdashOmkar Vinayak and Anandi Villa sources said However no fresh arrests have been made yetRajesh Naik the stampmaker He is an accused in the Rs 3000cr housing scam case PicsHanif PatelAnandi VillaThe Virar police have booked Anandi Villa owner and developers Arun Chintaman Patil and Rambhau Patil for using fake government documents The complaint was filed by Vinod Gotmare 42 the chief clerk at the Encroachment Department of the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation VVCMCThey constructed two sixstorey wings comprising 42 flats and one shop and sold them to unsuspecting buyers they added Cops said the VVCMC on December 26 2018 gave the builder a notice under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning MRTP Act 1966 for the demolition of the buildings But no action was taken sinceVinayak AptsThe police have booked two individuals and a firm for the construction of the fivestorey Vinayak Apartments which has 39 flats two shops and one hospital They were also issued a notice under the MRTP Act on April 22 last year cops saidSakuntala and Ramchandra Naik parents of Rajesh an accused in the Rs 3000cr housing scam caseThe alleged accused aremdashChandrakant Yashwant Patil the land owner M Rajhans Enterprises the developer firm Mohan Mhatre the firmrsquos owner The developers allegedly used forged documents of CIDCO and the Town Planning Authority including a letter from the VVCMC police saidOmkar AptsPeelibai Bistur Patil the owner of the land at Fulpada in Virar East and developer Pravin Prabhakar Patil who owns Vitthu Patil developers have been booked for erecting fourstorey Omkar Apartments with 32 flats They had been issued a notice on April 20 last year They did not obtain any permission to construct the building VVCMC Joint CP Ajay Chaufekar is the complainant in the two other FIRsEOW to take over caseA highly placed source at Virar police told midday that the first FIR involving Prashant Madhukar Patil and his accomplices is likely to be transferred to the Economic Offences Wing EOW of the Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar MBVV police as ldquothe accused did not pay government taxes to secure RERA order thus causing heavy loss to the revenue departmentrdquoOmkar Apartments in pic along with two others were built using fake documents according to the police PicsHanif PatelldquoCollectorate officials in Thane and Palghar districts are having sleepless nights because of this multicrore housing scam ldquoAlso as they sold housing units under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana many homebuyers got the subsidy of R25 lakh So these scammers also caused loss to the PMOrdquo the source addedThe source said ldquoAlthough we are still calculating the total loss to the government exchequer the estimated loss would not be less than R400 crore because the Patil and his gang did notrdquo pay any tax to the government Police suspect Patil also laundered money he made scamming both the people and the government officialsCops to visit Patil hometownAnother officer said a team will visit Patilrsquos hometown at Kudal taluka in Sindhudurg district ldquoto further widen our investigationrdquo Senior Inspector Virar police Rajendra Kamble said ldquoA team of seven officers are investigating this case Civic officials will also be questionedrdquo Another source said that Ankita Patil the wife of mastermind Patil could be made a coaccused in this case ldquoas the money was also transferred to a bank account whose coowner is Ankita PatilrdquolsquoFather falsely implicatedrsquoRajesh Naik one of the four alleged accomplices of Patil is innocent claimed his son Sairaj Naik a resident of Umrale village in Nalasopara West The 53yearold rubber stamp maker was approached by Patil and his coaccused Dilip Anant Adkhale with fake letterheads police have learnt ldquoWhen government officials had failed to detect the scam then how could my father a mere stampmaker have figured out that the letters were fakerdquo asked Sairaj 26ldquoThis is our family business and my father has been making rubber stamps since decades There is not a single case against his name We have a long list of clientele who order from various industrial areas of Andheri MIDC and Goregaon and police stations in Nalasopara Virar Arnala etcrdquo said Sairaj who works in an automobile firmNaik also had contacts with photocopy centres in VasaiVirar and they would suggest his name to customers looking for rubber stamps ldquoWe charge only R35 We need to have one letterhead undersigned by the department concerned if the rubber stamp is being made for that government bodyrdquo he addedAccording to the son Patil had approached Rajesh through one of the photocopy centres ldquoThey had sent a letterhead undersigned by a civic official They got three rubber stamps made and paid Rs 105 My father has been arrested for accepting a rightful payment of R105 My father has been falsely implicated and was arrested even though he was cooperating in the investigationrdquo Sairaj addedThe investigators are now thinking of making Rajesh who is imprisoned in Thane jail along with other scammers a witness in this case Sairaj after his fatherrsquos arrest is worried about repaying their housing loan of Rs 40 lakhldquoHow will I repay the housing loan The cops have also confiscated the entire setup which my grandfather had installed decades ago All the machinery has been seized and the family business has come to a standstill I am now running from pillar to post to secure bail for my father My grandparents are in their 80s My mother has not been keeping well since my fatherrsquos arrestrdquoAnother witnessPolice sources said a photocopy centrersquos owner has been made a witness in this case ldquoAdhkale had given him two letterheads in October and November last yearrdquo they added Patil and gang got stamps made from Devendra Keshav Majhi too cops said ldquoMajhi is a history sheeter who is admitted at a civic hospital in Vasai He is good at making false PAN and Aadhaar cardsrdquo a source said