Home Dehradun Alleged involvement of Cong leader in fraudulent land deal heats up politics

Alleged involvement of Cong leader in fraudulent land deal heats up politics

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By Arun Pratap Singh

Dehradun, 19 May: Frauds related to property deals are rising in Uttarakhand, particularly in places like Dehradun, Haridwar and US Nagar districts. In many of such deals, involvement of political leaders, some middle level officials in the district and state administration and even the police officers has been suspected. In one such recent fraudulent land deal, involvement of senior Congress leader and party state general secretary Vijay Saraswat has been alleged. This deal has heated the political atmosphere in the state.

While BJP has demanded action from the Congress against the ‘culprit’ allegedly involved in this fraudulent land deal, Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Karan Mahra today stated that the party will take action if the said leader is proven guilty.

Meanwhile, this fraudulent land deal has been the talk of the town since yesterday after the Dehradun Police registered a case against State General Secretary of the Congress Vijay Saraswat and arrested one of the accused, Mohammed Samir Kamiyab, a resident of district Muzaffarnagar.

As per the Doon Police, this gang is involved in forging the documents of a plot measuring more than 3 bighas and selling the land on the basis of the forged documents. According to the police, the land in question is worth more than Rs 11 crores. Following the arrest of Mohammed Samir Kamiyab, son of Mohammed Israel, the names of around a dozen persons have surfaced in relation with this deal. One of the names is that of senior Congress leader Vijay Saraswat. Police claim that more arrests will be made soon in the case.

Sources claim that even Saraswat may be arrested by the Police soon. Dehradun police Chief Dalip Singh Kunwar has claimed that strict action will be taken against all the accused in the land deal and the property will be attached.

It may be recalled that the Police action was taken on the complaint of one Ashok Aggarwal filed with Clement Town Police Station that his acquaintances Vijay Gupta and Radhavallabh Gupta were recently shown a piece of land on Saharanpur Road adjacent to Clement Town by some dealers, Bhatnagar and Verma. The deal was fixed for an amount of Rs 11.50 crores. An advance of Rs 25 lakhs was also paid by his associates as earnest money through a bank transfer into the bank account of Mohammed Sameer Kamiyab, while another amount of Rs 5 lakhs was paid in cash. One Rohit Pandey had informed Aggarwal and the Guptas that the land was in name of one Fatima Begum who was ‘mother’ of Mohammed Sameer Kamiyab. Mohammed Sameer, after showing the land to them, took them to Advocate Virendra Sehgal’s chamber where Sehgal allegedly verified that the documents of the property were genuine.

After this, the papers were prepared on 14 February this year and registry was done the next day. Following this, the buyers paid a cash amount of Rs 2.40 crores to the seller and an amount of Rs 1.85 crores to Congress leader Vijay Saraswat. The rest of the money was to be paid after taking possession. However, when the buyers asked Mohammed Sameer Kamiyab and others to hand over the physical possession of the property, they kept on delaying the matter. This created a doubt in the mind of the buyers who then enquired about the status of the property.

It was revealed that the said property was actually registered in name of late DK Mittal. Mittal’s wife Sushila also died in 2021 due to Corona. Since then, many fraudulent dealings have been done with regard to this property as the property owners did not have any heir. In fact, some more cases are under investigation involving the same property by preparing fake documents and land deals done by several fraudsters in the past, too. This time, it was Mohammed Sameer Kamiyab along with several others including allegedly Vijay Saraswat. It is said that several cases of similar fraudulent deals are registered against Kamiyab. The Police have claimed that the property will now be attached so that no one indulges in similar frauds in future on this property.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Manveer Singh Chauhan, who is currently the state media in charge of the party, has demanded that the Congress clarify before the public what action it is going to be taken against its leader for his involvement in the land fraud. Chauhan also reminded that the Police investigation reveals the money earned in this land fraud has been transferred to the account of the Congress leader and claimed that in the past, too, some Congress leaders have been found to be involved in land fraud.