Co-accused files cheating case against seven

Vadodara: In a new twist in the NRI property case, one of the co-accused, who also happens to be related to the NRI lady Lopa Dave, registered a cheating case against Dilip Patel and seven others for selling off her bungalow on Race Course Road using a forged power of attorney.
Complainant Sunanda Patel, who is married to Dave’s uncle Raman Patel, had given an application to register the plaint on the basis of which an FIR was registered at Gotri police station on Friday. Sunanda was named as one of the accused by Dave in her complaint registered with the DCB (detection of crime branch) police station.

According to Sunanda’s complaint, she had planned to sell off her bungalow on Race Course Road in 2017 as her husband was not keeping well. She had sealed the deal with builder Dharamveersinh Jadeja for Rs 27.5 crore, but later on through her lawyer Sunanda learnt that the sale deed for the property was already done by Dilip with one Paresh Patel who lives in the USA. Sunanda told police that Dilip had been visiting her house since 2016 claiming that he is Raman’s friend.

When Sunanda got papers of the property from the sub-registrar’s office, she learnt that Dilip had sold off the bungalow on the basis of the power of attorney which Raman had given to him in 2012. Sunanda claimed that no such power of attorney was given by her husband as they did not know Dilip before 2016. She also told police that though power of attorney is of 2012, the stamp paper used by Dilip was produced in 2017 which makes it evident that he had forged the documents.

“The complainant claims that the sale deed was done by Dilip keeping her and her husband in dark and no money was paid to them by anyone,” said a police official.

Besides Dilip, Jadeja and Paresh, Sunanda has also named notary N M Vohra, Jadeja’s men Chirag and Bhavin, Vipulkumar Rupapara and Bashir Ahmed Dewan, who signed as the witness.