Five booked for forging Navelim man’s land documents

Margao: Margao town police have booked five persons on charges of fraudulently selling a part of a property belonging to Navelim-based businessman Moosa Saleh by using forged and fabricated documents. While the sale of one of the plots admeasuring around 450sqm was already executed, the fraud came to light when the accused were attempting to sell the second one as the prospective buyer approached Saleh.
The five accused have been identified as Salim Doddamani from Motidongor, Margao, Rajdeep Kundaikar from Navelim, Ramesh Haldankar, Margao-based public notary (dead), Mohammad Ismail Lalannawar from Colmorod, Margao and Iliyas Dhalayat from Moti Dongor, Margao.
Police sources said that Doddamani and Kundaikar had taken the property documents from Moosa between July 2019 to June 2020 on the pretext of showing them to prospective customers. However, the duo kept the original documents with them and returned photocopies of the papers to Moosa.
Using the original property documents, the accused prepared a fake power of attorney in the name of Kundaikar. Police sources said the accused used the fabricated power of attorney to sell one of the plots belonging to Moosa to Ismail and Dhalayat. Incidentally, the public notary who executed the power of attorney had died in 2014.
Moosa realised he was duped after a prospective buyer of the second plot approached him to verify the documents. Moosa then lodged a complaint with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe into fraudulent land deals. The Margao town police booked the case after it was referred to it on Monday.