Some officials of Bank of India, after a close scrutiny of documents submitted to the Bank, felt a mighty jolt as the documents of NMC and the NIT were found forged to avail loans, and 127 plots mortgaged with the Bank do not exist at all. Bank of India had disbursed the loan amounting to Rs 57 lakh to M/s Infra Dredge Services Private Ltd for developing 127 plots of a layout situated at Sonegaon.
Nagpur News:
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Wednesday 12 March 2025
Scams. Scandals. Dirty Dealings. Corruptions. Ugly Politics. Fixing Games. Now-a-days have become common like a baby crying for mother’s milk. The baby’s act could be understood genuine even in 1000 per cent proportions. However, the greed for more, more, and more easy money by powerful Government officials, and lower rung of babus as well, politicians, businessmen, and all and sundry, is beyond imagination. Albeit, the heinous crimes of robbing Government of people’s taxes by devilish means are being reported from Baba Adam Ka Zamana (years together). Nothing new.
A scam to the tune of lakhs and lakhs is likely to hit various Government agencies like of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) and a nationalized bank very hard.
According to sources, the nexus between officials of various government agencies and layout developers has come to the fore in Nagpur city. Some officials of Bank of India, after a close scrutiny of documents submitted to the Bank, felt a mighty jolt as the documents of NMC and the NIT were found forged to avail loans, and 127 plots mortgaged with the Bank do not exist at all. Bank of India had disbursed the loan amounting to Rs 57 lakh. Now, the appalled officials of the BoI are trying to trace the culprits and recover the dues.
The massive fraud could have been gathering dust in safety vaults or in the steel almirahs of the Bank of India had the Bank authorities not sent a letter to NIT on May 6, 2013. The few word letter exposed a gigantic scam. The letter mentioned a loan disbursed to M/s Infra Dredge Services Private Ltd for developing 127 plots of a layout situated at Sonegaon.
The BoI letter said, “We have issued notice under SARFAESI Act (used to recover outstanding loans and seize property) on November 11, 2012, and are taking possession followed by sale of mortgaged property for recovery of dues. The plots are shown in the layout plan submitted by the borrower, but do not appear in the certified copy of sanctioned layout plan. Kindly clarify and help to identify and demarcate mortgaged property, so that possession and sale can take place,” wrote BoI Zonal Manager Milind Vaidya. The bank has also attached the layout plan given by the borrower while obtaining the loan.
However, the details collected from the bank, NIT, NMC and a visit to the layout revealed it is nothing but a big scam. NIT sanctioned a layout regularizing 217 unauthorized plots in Khasra Nos. 50/1, 51/1, 81/1 and 70/2 with the name Adv M A Khawaja Layout, popularly known as Samarth Nagari, on January 1, 2005. A visit to the spot revealed there are no plots numbered beyond 217.
However, the scamsters submitted the fake layout plan to the the Bank of India that showed additional 127 plots, from 218 to 345, adjacent to the actual sanctioned layout. Each plot’s area is shown as 1,200 sq ft. But the land on which these non-existent plots were shown actually belonged to a deaf and dumb school, and some open land belonging to another family.
Shockingly, the forged layout plan mentioned sanction date as March 6, 2002, three years before the original sanction. Also, the plan comprised signature of the then Assistant Director of Town Planning P Bhukte in two places, and seals of a Notary and Sub-Registrar office. Thus, the issue involved four different departments: Bank, NMC, NIT and Registrar Department.
RTI activist T H Naidu, who is a retired bank employee, said, it could not happen without the nexus between the layout developer and the Government officials. “Bank should not have disbursed loan without inspecting the land and confirming the documents from departments concerned. All these formalities are done when a common man applies for a loan. In this case, they have not even lodged an FIR till date,” he said.
However, the jolted BoI officials declined to comment on the issue. A senior official said unofficially the loan was disbursed from the bank’s Mumbai branch. “Bank’s assets recovery and legal cells are investigating the case. Proper action will be taken after completing internal processes,” he said.
Sources said the bank has to recover Rs 57 lakh from the borrower. “The persons concerned took the loan in the name of Infra Dredge Services Private Ltd and are now as untraceable as the plots.”
NIT officials said NIT had nothing to do with the case since the layout does not exist, so the plots could not be mortgaged for the loan. Strangely, NMC does not have the layout plan since it was not the sanctioning authority. However, the forged layout plan has signatures of a senior NMC official along with sanction numbers etc. Officially, NMC says it has nothing to do with the case.
Modus operandi:
1) Applicants in the name of M/s Infra Dredge Services Pvt Ltd borrowed loan from Bank of India, Mumbai branch.
2) Loan obtained to develop 128 plots, which were mortgaged.
3) Layout plan submitted to bank shows NMC sanction on March 6, 2002, for 128 plots numbered from 218 to 345.
4) Plan has signatures of Assistant Director of Town Planning at two places, and seals of Sub-Registrar and Notary.
5) NMC does not have such layout plan or the permit numbers etc shown on forged layout plan.
6) Original layout on the khasras mentioned was sanctioned by NIT on January 1, 2005.
7) Original layout plan has only 217 plots, but does not cover land shown in forged layout plan.
8) Land adjacent to layout houses deaf and dumb school, and remaining open space belongs to a different family.
