Mumbai man forged papers of 350-acre land in Kutch

Rajkot: Bhadresh Mehta, the promoter of Mumbai-headquartered Bhadresh Trading Corporation, who was arrested for bank fraud by the anti-terrorist squad (ATS), had mortgaged nearly 350 acres of land in Kutch using forged papers way back in 2012.
He had mortgaged the land to obtain nearly Rs 750 crore from some public sector banks.

Mehta allegedly mortgaged 61 parcels of land (nearly 350 acres) of various villages in Bhuj taluka to obtain the loans. The land was allotted to his company in August 2012 with the condition to start the operation within one year but nothing has come up on the land. This was stated in a report of the sub-divisional magistrate submitted to Kutch collector after Right to Information (RTI) activist Datesh Bhavsar got these facts through various applications.

ATS had arrested Mehta (61), a resident of Infocity Tower on Narayan Dabholkar Road in Mumbai, for obtaining a loan from a public sector bank by mortgaging a land parcel in Dehgam by forging documents. At present, he is in the custody of CID (crime).

In 2012, Kutch deputy collector had allotted nearly 61 parcels of land in Nani Reldi, Mota Varnora, Zikdi and Paiya villages in Bhuj taluka to the firm for setting up an agro food processing park. The condition of the allotment was that the company had to obtain necessary permission and start the unit within one year.

The company had evinced interest in starting various processing plants for sugar, soft drinks, fruit juice, instant food mix, energy food and spice powder. In 2017, Bhavsar made several applications to the Kutch collector’s office and revenue commissioner at Gandhinagar alleging that no industry had been set up on the said parcels of land. The enquiry was handed over to Bhuj SDM.

On March 3, the SDM submitted a report in which he quoted the details of various revenue talatis along with inquest and the other details of the land mortgaged to various banks. In Paiya village, there was no construction on five survey numbers allotted to this company but castor was being cultivated in some portion. There are seven survey numbers allotted in Zakdi village where there was no activity. The largest land allotted was in Mota Varnora village, where 39 survey numbers of agricultural land was allotted for industrial purpose but the talati found no industrial construction. The report stated that there were only some trees of dried dates and drip irrigation system while rest of the land remained uncultivated.

Talking to TOI, Bhavsar, said “After my repeated representations, Kutch collector asked the mamlatdar to submit the report but I am not informed what action has been taken based on it. The loans were sanctioned by a public sector bank’s Mumbai office by mortgaging the land, which is highly overvalued for the purpose of sanctioning the loan. How can a bank blindly lend so much amount without proper verification?”

Kutch district collector Remya Mohan said, “We are coordinating with various banks and various agencies and combined actions will be taken against Mehta. Breach of trust is not the only issue but it is a question of national interest as the money of public sector banks is involved.”