Nagpur: In a shocking case of fraud, members of a land mafia gang duped a businessman of more than ₹3.02 crore by selling him government-owned land in Nagpur.
The complaint was filed by Shahnawaz Alam Hakim Ansari at Wathoda Police Station. Police have arrested three accused — Zafarullah Khan Hafizullah Khan and Shadab Khan Hidayatullah Khan, both residents of Bengali Panja, Itwari, and Vakil Ahmed Abdul Karim Sheikh, a resident of Bhandara district.
According to police, the complainant first purchased land in Mouja Bhandewadi in 2010 and again in 2017 after being told about alleged survey discrepancies. Later, the accused convinced him to buy additional plots (Nos. 13/A, 14/A, 1, 5, and 140), taking around ₹52.71 lakh in cash and cheque as advance. Between October 2021 and October 2022, the complainant and his associate, Shahzada Ansari, were lured into multiple transactions, leading to a total fraud of over ₹3.02 crore.
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18 Aug 2025
The fraud was exposed on January 6, 2025, when the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) encroachment team informed the complainant that the land was actually NIT property, reserved since 1961 for sewerage, garbage disposal, and treatment plants. On verification, it was found that the accused had forged 7/12 extract records and even resold the same land to others, including one Sahil Iqbal Shabbir Sheikh.
Investigations further revealed that the accused were fully aware the land was government property and had already received compensation for it. Despite this, they allegedly prepared fake documents and sale deeds under the name of “Sai Ratna Developers” to cheat the complainant.
Police registered a case under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 474, and 120B of the IPC. The arrested accused were produced before the court and remanded to seven days’ police custody
