Properties of accused lawyers Imran & Kamal Virmani also raided
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 30 Aug: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today conducted raids in five states in the fake registry scam case. The Enforcement Directorate conducted search operations in around 18 to 20 locations today and the raids continued at the time of filing of this report. ED sources claimed that raids have been conducted at many locations including Uttarakhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Ludhiana in Punjab. In Uttarakhand, raids were mainly conducted at several locations in Dehradun and Rishikesh. The sources claimed that the raids are being conducted on properties of “land mafia” involved in the fake registry case of Uttarakhand and also on properties of some government employees working or who were in the past working at Dehradun Sub-Registrar Office, as well as on properties of some revenue officials, government lawyers and some property dealers. The sources also stated that two big property dealers have also been taken into custody by the ED for interrogation.
It may be recalled that the first case was registered in July 2022 in the fake registry case. After that, a chain of cases was filed one after the other which continued till some months ago. In all, at least 18 cases have so far been registered in the fake registry case. At least 20 accused have also been arrested and sent to jail. It is unofficially conceded by the ED, the Police and senior revenue officials that the actual number of fake registries could be much higher, many of which have not surfaced so far.
In Dehradun, ED raids continued at the locations of alleged land mafia involved in the fake registry, government employees-officers working in the registry office, government lawyers and some builders. Sources claimed that the ED teams arrived in 25 vehicles in Dehradun at around 6 a.m., today, and started conducting raids at different locations. In Dehradun, raids were conducted amongst other places also in Rajpur Road, Dalanwala, Akashdeep Colony and Rajendra Nagar. The sources added that raids were also conducted in properties of two main accused lawyers Kamal Virmani (In Brahmanwala) and Imran Ahmed.
Some teams also reached Rishikesh early morning today. Raids were being conducted at many locations including Rajpur Road, Dalanwala, Akashdeep Colony at different places in Dehradun. Also, raids are going on at the houses of the main two accused lawyers Imran Ahmed (of Saharanpur) and Kamal Virmani in the fake registry case. Kamal Virmani was arrested on 27 August 2023.
Some locations were considered to be crucial by the ED and in one particular location which was not revealed by the ED sources, a team of 15 ED officials conducted raids. According to sources, ED has collected many documents, papers and important information during the raid. It may be recalled that a total of 18 cases were registered by Doon Police in connection with the fake registry scam. Several accused involved in the scam were also arrested. A detailed report was early this year also shared with ED in view of the possibilities of money laundering and scam by the accused of the fake registry scam. The ED raids were conducted without any help of Uttarakhand Police which claimed that it did not have any authorised information in this regard.
It may be recalled that on July 15, 2023, Dehradun’s Assistant Inspector General, Registration, Sandeep Srivastava had lodged a complaint, in which it was said that by hatching a conspiracy with the connivance of the accused, tampering with different land sale documents has been revealed in the Sub Registrar Offices I and II. On the basis of the complaint, a case was registered in City Kotwali, Dehradun. Once this news gained traction, the police on the direction of CM Dhami had set up an SIT which extracted information from the Registrar Office and also collected information about more than 30 registries related to the Ring Road, Dehradun. It also questioned many people. During interrogation and investigation, the names of some property dealers came to the fore. On questioning them, the names of many people involved in the fraud also allegedly surfaced. Bank accounts of many suspicious people were also traced and scanned by the SIT in which transactions worth crores of rupees were revealed. Apart from this, many incriminating documents were found with them, which were obtained from the Registrar’s office through fraud. Many tampered documents were also traced. After which, the SIT had arrested Santosh Agarwal, Deep Chand Agarwal, Makhan Singh, Dalchand, lawyer Imran Ahmed, Ajay Chhetri, Rohtash Singh, Vikas Pandey, Kunwar Pal alias KP (who died in judicial custody), Kamal Virmani and Vishal Kumar. After their arrest, the fraud was revealed layer by layer.
It may be recalled that one of the leading lawyers in Dehradun, Kamal Virmani, was arrested on 27 August last year. It may also be recalled that one of the main conspirators and players in the fake registry scam, KP Singh, who had also been arrested along with many others had died while in judicial custody in October last. His death had raised many questions which have remained unanswered so far. He was the fourth accused to have died mysteriously in the case. Apart from him, two book binders working in the registrar’s office in Dehradun, Sonu and Navratan, and another binder working in Saharanpur Registrar’s office Ram Bharose had also died mysteriously. All of them allegedly died due to heavy drinking. These mysterious deaths however possibly point towards a high-level conspiracy to save some top guns allegedly involved in the case. It is also believed by many analysts that such a large scale fake registry scam which was going on in a very systemic manner in Dehradun and also linked to Saharanpur could not have gone on without support of some higher ups. However, no senior officer seems to be on the radar of the investigation agencies so far.
