Paanwala signs ‘receipt’, loses Gujarat’s Motown land

AHMEDABAD: A 70-year-old paan shop owner was tricked with a masala-laced money story: a fraudster said he was a courier man bearing a compensation cheque from the railways for the shop owner’s six-acre land. The land of the septuagenarian, Ali Momin, in Gujarat’s Motown of Sanand was worth crores.
Momin has alleged that the courier handed an envelope ostensibly containing the cheque to him saying the railways was paying for acquiring the land. Momin was made to give his thumb impressions on some papers. This happened in 2018. Momin says he came to know later that the cheque receipts were actually documents of sale deed agreements.
Momin, a resident of Gibpura village in Sanand, had several tracts of land in the state’s booming Motown. His five acres of land was acquired by the railways in 2017 and he was left with 6 acres.
The remainder of Momin’s holdings were lost on August 30, 2018, by the alleged pressing of his thumb. An FIR was filed by Momin at the Sanand police station on Friday.
Inspector H B Gohil of Sanand police said that when Momin opened the envelope he found a few papers with ABCD alphabets and random 1-10 numbers with images on it. His suspicion aroused, Momin issued a notice in newspapers stating that someone had taken his thumb impressions with mala fide intentions.
On the other hand, the accused in the case, Pradyumnasinh Jhala of Limbdi town of Surendranagar, began acquiring the land. When Momin objected, Jhala filed a civil suit in a court to get the land registered in his name.
During the prosecution of the case, a discrepancy was found in signatures. On Momin’s pleas, a court ordered an inquiry and forensic experts were called in. An analysis by the experts confirmed that something was dodgy.
Later, a police team of Sanand determined that Jhala and a notary from Ahmedabad identified as N K Sisodia had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to acquire the land by defrauding Momin, says PI Gohil.
The investigation also revealed that Jhala had allegedly posed as the courier. Sanand police have registered a case of cheating and forgery.