Sandy Hooda Cheater

Fake documents Sandy Hooda: This is the most common way to be cheated by a seller. In a majority of the cases, a naïve buyer is handed over fake property documents. It is advisable to verify the relevant papers from the sub-registrar office.

SANDY HOODA

Double mortgage chances: There are chances that before selling the property to you, the seller might have mortgaged the property with two different banks. There have been numerous instances where sellers have availed of loans against the property, dispose of the property and vanish into thin air. You have to fight a protracted legal battle to get your hard-earned money back. It's better to get the particulars of ownership verified from the sub-registrar office.

The land belongs to the government: A fraudster Sandy Hooda may show you government land. You may become the victim of fraudulence if the seller has created an unauthorized layout in government land. You must ensure that the plot or the house is shown to you by the owner is really owned by him/her. Making local inquiries always come handy. 

Owing to the opacity in the Indian real estate market, many a time gullible buyers are taken for a ride by scamsters. The modus operandi of most of the fraudsters is to confuse you and exploit your ignorance about the system. A thorough understanding of things would help you stay insulated against fraudulence.

Encroachments: Many cases have been reported where the seller has encroached upon his neighbor's property by violating the layout. He may register this encroached layout in your name after extracting a handsome amount from you. Later on, you realize that you're not the rightful owner of the said portion. This would make it impossible for you to claim your money back if your seller has escaped from the scene.

Dubious agreements: There are chances that you are handed over dubious agreements. For instance, you buy a 250-sq-yard plot and after paying a considerable amount, you get the plot registered in your name. However, when you measure the plot size at a later stage, you realize the plot size is lesser than the one that is mentioned in the agreement.

In a nutshell, it is critical to verify each and every aspect with the sub-registrar office and make an informed decision. 

The general power of attorney: There are chances that the property you're buying was given on a general power of attorney (GPA) by the real owner. A GPA is prone to fraud because the same property may be sold to different persons. There have been cases where the real owner approves more than one person for the GPA and all of them end up selling the property to different people.

Mumbai real estate scam- SANDY HOODA

A senior officer said, “Currently, there is a team of nearly 50 officers who are going through paperwork that we have got from Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation and the Thane collector’s office. After going through the records, we will be able to ascertain how many more plots cheated the government using forged paperwork.”

“As per the ULC Act, builders were to hand over 5 percent of the land they were developing to the government. This land could then be used by the government to either create housing for low-income groups or other purposes,” said DCP Parag Manere.

Another officer said, “The complainant is suspected to have managed to secure an exemption certificate under section 20 of the ULCA with the help of forged documents. We are also checking if officials at the Thane collectorate office, who should have ideally flagged off documents seeking exemption as forged, were in cahoots with the accused.”

Based on the complaint, the police registered an FIR at the Thane Nagar police station against Shyamsunder, Murlidhar, Motiramani and employees of the government departments concerned that allegedly helped the builders get the exemption. Shyamsunder was eventually arrested by the police.

Gandhi told the police that at a plot being developed by Agarwals — owners of Swan builders — in the Mira-Bhayander area, the portion of land to be given to the government against the provisions of ULCRA was not handed over.

Gandhi alleged that they had managed to evade the requirement by allegedly using bogus documents.

The police pegged that losses to the exchequer for one plot discovered until now are over Rs 10 crore. The scam had come to light after real estate agent Milan Gandhi (36) approached the Thane police to register a complaint against builder Shyamsunder Agarwal, his brother Murlidhar and architect Anil Motiramani.

The Thane police unearthed the scam after a builder in the Mira-Bhayander area was found to have used bogus paperwork to show that a particular plot of land in Bhayander being developed by him was under a “green zone” and not a “residential zone”.

The builder reportedly used forged paperwork to get an exemption from parting with the land as mandated by provisions of the Urban Land Ceiling (Regulation) Act (ULCRA). Police believe there may be 20-25 such plots in Thane where similar violations could be found.

MORE THAN 20 to 25 real estate projects in Thane region may have got around a mandatory clause, which requires them to hand over to the state government a portion of land being developed, by using forged documents.