In the forged heirship certificate scam uncovered in December last year, Panvel City Police have made further arrests, taking the total number of accused to seven. The case now involves five lawyers and two court employees, who allegedly misappropriated Rs66 lakh in court fees through systematic manipulation.
Police said that three lawyers — Amar Patwardhan, Nitin Kelkar, and Gauri Kelkar — along with court clerk Deepak Phad were arrested on December 27. Subsequently, Dhairyashil Bandivadekar, an assistant superintendent at the Panvel civil court, was also taken into custody. Last week, two more lawyers, Sanket Patil and Vishal Mundkar, were arrested and are currently in police remand.
Investigations revealed that the accused allegedly collected court fees from litigants but deposited only about 10% of the amount into official accounts, siphoning off the remaining funds. Of the Rs66 lakh allegedly misappropriated, police have so far recovered Rs62 lakh. Authorities are now preparing to register a fourth case, and more arrests are likely.
The scam came to light after Kamaladevi Narayandas Gupta attempted to use an heirship certificate to claim benefits under CIDCO’s 12.5% land allotment scheme. CIDCO officials rejected the document after finding no record of it in their online system. Further verification revealed that the certificate carried forged seals and fake signatures of judicial officers.
Following this discovery, advocate Mahesh Deshmukh applied for a certified copy of the document from the court, which confirmed that the certificate was forged. A formal complaint was then lodged with the Panvel City Police in November.
Police officials stated that investigations are ongoing to determine the possible involvement of additional court staff, real estate brokers, and CIDCO officials in the scam.
