4 held for forging Naval documents

By Mateen Hafeez/TNN

Mumbai: The Worli police arrested an ex-Naval commander, a builder and two film makers for submitting bogus documents in the name of Navy to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to construct a 19-storey building adjacent to INS Trata in Worli. The builder had also paid Rs 4 crore to yesteryears film actress Nimmi to vacate her bunglow located on the same land plot.

Police said the ex-commander, Mitender Sethi (55) was paid Rs 1 crore by the builder, Mohan Babani (45), for giving knowledge to prepare bogus documents related to the Navy. The two other accused, Grupal Harbansingh Sacchal(36) and Vinod Tejwani (37) claimed to be film makers for Sahara One channel.

The complainant, Lieutenant commander, Abhijit Singh of INS Trata Worli, in his complaint stated that the Navy had never issued any ‘No Objection Certificate’ to anyone on the ground that constructing a highrise adjacent to Naval area was not permitted. “Acting on the complaint, we investigated the case and found that the acit to Babani for Rs 6 crore. Later, Babani paid Nimmi Rs 4 crore to vacate that land in 2003. “When Naval officials came to know about Babani’s plan, they wrote to BMC and Babani that an NOC cannot be issued to him on the grounds that Navy has vital installations in its area. By the time Babani had already spent Rs 10 crore and he planned to concused had prepared bogus NOC letters to get permission from BMC’s building department,’’ a police officer said.

A police officer said that the land plot, measuring 1,648 square metres, belonged to Maharani of Marvi, Gujarat and film actress Nimmi. Maharani sold tact someone who could help him get the permission for construction,’’ an investigating officer said.

The ex-Naval officer, Sethi and another accused Sacchal were staying in the same building in Khar (west). Sacchal, on behalf of Babani, offered Sethi Rs 1 crore for helping Babani in this matter. Sethi agreed and was paid Rs 1 crore in cash. The other two, Sacchal and Tejwani were given Rs 20 lakh each. The four accused together submitted bogus letters of INS Trata to BMC. The BMC officials sanctioned the letter to construct a building. “The BMC officials did not bother to verify whether the letter submitted by the accused was genuine since it did not contain any official stamp from Navy or any monogram of On India Government Service (OIGS). We are questioning the concerned BMC officials as well,’’ a senior officer said. Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, additional commissioner of police (central region), said, “We have informed the Income Tax officials and they will soon question Babani as to how he managed to give Rs 1.40 crore in cash to the other accused.’’

The Times of India, May 14, 2005