A major case of fraud, impersonation and forgery of documents were unravelled by the District Crime Branch (DCB) police here on Tuesday in which four persons were arrested and a hunt was launched to trace two others, including the son of a Madurai-based granite company owner.
Following a complaint from Rajan of Poolampatti near Melur, a retired headmaster, Superintendent of Police Asra Garg directed the DCB police to register a case.
According to the complainant, he had lodged a land grab complaint with the Othakadai police six years back but the police had not taken any action.
He had stated in his complaint that he had a share in his ancestral property, which was allegedly impersonated by some of his relatives and sold to P. Suresh Kumar (37), son of P.R. Palanichamy.
As there was no action, the complainant approached the court recently, which had asked the Superintendent of Police to examine and file his remarks on the status of the case. After verification of the records, the police informed the court that it would reopen the case and investigate. A special team from the DCB led by its DSP A. Thangavel probed the complaint.
Initial investigation suggested that the complainant's sister Janaki (who died last year) had along with her children and with the connivance of some land brokers decided to sell 2.19 acres of land in Poolampatti panchayat to Suresh Kumar. In the process, the gang had forged documents and indulged in impersonation.
A senior officer explained that Veerammal, grandmother of the complainant, had died in mid-70s, but Janaki had signed in the forged documents as Veerammal.
In a bid to set the record straight, the buyers had prepared an amendment deed in 2004, in which the sellers (Janaki and others) had signed in different names. As there was no valid proof to establish their identity, investigating officers registered a case of forgery and added that the revenue department's certificate revealed that the patta was not issued by them.
Hence, based on the confessions, the DCB police registered a case against eight persons including Suresh Kumar under IPC Sections 420, 468, 471, among others. As Janaki and Selvakumar had died in recent months, among the eight, the police arrested Pandi, Andi, Prabhu and Muthukumar, while they are on the look out for Suresh Kumar and Sumathi.
All the arrested persons were produced before a magistrate court, which remanded them to judicial custody.
