70-year-old woman arrested in land grabbing case in Vadodara

VADODARA: The crime branch on Tuesday arrested a 70-year-old woman in connection with a land-grabbing case registered against a couple in the city.Shanta Rathod was arrested as the key accused Sanjay Parmar had done all the land deals in her name. He also opened joint accounts in two different banks with Rathod.
Crime branch sleuths said that they are investigating the involvement of government employees in the scam that has left the district administration stunned. Parmar and his wife were recently arrested under the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act 2020 and forgery for usurping government land in Danteswhar.
The police said that Parmar forged documents in the name of Rathod showing her as the owner of the land. He later floated a residential project and made plush bungalows on this land. All the deals were done in the name of Rathod while Parmar remained in the background.
"He used Rathod's late husband Mahiji Rathod's name in the entire scam and she was shown as a beneficiary. We examined the bank accounts that Parmar opened with Rathod and found that he used to withdraw money regularly from it. As of now, we suspect the scam to the tune of over Rs 1 crore," said H A Rathod, ACP (crime).
Those who bought houses in the residential project had no idea that they were being duped. Investigations have revealed that the land's prime owner is the district collector and hence the cops are trying to ascertain how forged documents were created to add the late Mahiji Rathod's name as the owner in the land documents.
The crime branch is recording statements of Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) officials and examining the documents along with officials of the banks where Parmar had opened accounts.