Real estate developer and director of Bhumiraj Group, Bhupendra Shah, who was admitted to MGM Hospital following his arrest, was discharged on Tuesday after JJ Hospital gave a report that he did not need to be admitted.
Mr. Shah was arrested on February 12 in a cheating and forgery case and remanded in police custody till February 15. But after reaching the police station, Mr. Shah’s blood pressure shot up. He was taken to Uran rural hospital by the Nhava Sheva police where doctors referred him to MGM Hospital.
On February 13, senior police inspector Pramod Jadhav from Nhava Sheva police station approached court to get the police custody order cancelled to save the days meant for police custody. The court granted magisterial custody and asked for a report from JJ Hospital to ensure if the hospital admission was necessary.
After the report from JJ Hospital suggested that Mr. Shah was fit to be taken into custody, he was discharged from MGM Hospital. Later he was presented before the court, which sent him to police custody till Thursday. “There could be more accused involved in the case and to identify them, the custody of Mr. Shah is required,” Ashok Dudhe, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone II, said.
A case against Mr. Shah was registered on December 3 at Nhava Sheva police station for forgery of a farmer’s certificate that was used to usurp an 80-acre plot at Gavhan. Before Mr. Shah, four people — Anil Sawant (45), Krishna Gawli (35), Ramesh Bhalerao (54) and Satish Shirke (47) — were arrested in December 2019.
The farmer’s certificate was made after purchasing an agricultural land in Latur. The land belonged to Sopan Gawli, who was father-in-law of a talathi of Karjat — Mr. Bhalerao. The land from Mr. Gawli was purchased in 2006 by Mr. Shirke and Mr. Sawant who posed as Harilal Hinduja and Ratanlal Wadhwa respectively.
In 2007, it was sold to Mr. Shah. In 2011, Mr. Shah sold it to the first owner’s wife, Rahibai Sopan Gawli. During investigations, it was found that the photo and signature of Mr. Shah in the documents of purchase in 2007 and in the documents of sale in 2011 are of different persons and not of the original Mr. Shah.
“The one who posed as Mr. Shah in 2011 was Mr. Shirke while we are yet to find out who signed as Mr. Shah in 2007. After the deal of 2007, Mr. Shah procured the farmer’s certificate which he used to purchase the 80 acres at Gavhan in Nhava Sheva,” Mr. Dudhe said.
