Follow us on Google News
Police have registered a first information report against ten individuals, including partners of a real estate firm and current and former trustees of the Shri Ram Mandir Devasthan Trust, over the alleged fraudulent takeover of temple trust land valued at upwards of Rs 300 crore in Mira Road. The accused face charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, and tampering with official land records relating to nearly 98,000 square meters of land situated in the Shanti Garden locality. Investigators state that developers constructed around 60 multi-storey residential buildings and commercial shops on the parcel, housing roughly 1,500 residents, while the trust allegedly received none of the massive revenues generated from the property sales.
Suspect Land Transfer and Record Tampering
The legal proceedings began on November 3 following a formal complaint filed by Bhayandar East resident Ramesh Kothari, who uncovered the discrepancies while conducting due diligence on land titles for a prospective home purchase in the area. According to the complaint, the trust land was purportedly transferred to Mukesh Dalchand Choudhary and Dalchand Girdharilal Choudhary for a nominal sum of just Rs 8 lakh, without obtaining mandatory prior permission from the Charity Commissioner. Records indicate that Dalchand Choudhary, Rakesh Choudhary, and Mukesh Choudhary joined Ramnagar Development Corporation as active partners on March 1, 1979, merely three days before executing the land transaction on March 4, 1979, allegedly claiming protected tenancy status to secure undue regulatory exemptions.
The FIR further alleges that the names of the partners were entered into official revenue records through unauthorized physical handwriting and extensive overwriting. Documentary filings submitted to the Charity Commissioner showed conflicting execution dates, with some bearing October 20, 1981, and others dated November 30, 1981. Investigators also noted that after the death of the trust’s chief manager and trustee Nandlal Agarwal in 1991, fabricated documents were produced under his name to secure official non-agricultural permission for the land parcel in 2002.
Encroachment on Government Housing Land
The complaint highlights significant violations of a 1989 statutory order issued under the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act, which governed the utilization of the plot. Under that directive, approximately 50,000 square meters of surplus land was supposed to be surrendered to the Maharashtra state government free of cost, while an additional 33,000 square meters had been designated for transfer to the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation to construct housing for economically weaker sections. Instead of surrendering these plots to public authorities, the developers allegedly covered the entire parcel with commercial and high-density residential buildings, selling the units to private buyers for hundreds of crores of rupees without remitting any portion to the temple trust.
Economic Offences Wing Assumes Control of Probe
Eight of the accused named in the case include Rakesh Dalchand Choudhary, Mukesh Dalchand Choudhary, Kailas Chandra Jain, Ramesh Chhaganlal Shah, Bharat Shantilal Shah, Prachi Devang Desai, Dalchand Girdharilal Choudhary, and Rashesh Bharat Shah, alongside two others cited in the complaint. Due to the scale of the alleged financial improprieties and document manipulation, the Kashimira police station has formally transferred the probe to the Economic Offences Wing. Senior officers confirmed that specialized investigators will examine historical revenue registries, trust administrative records, bank statements, and regulatory clearances, as representatives of the accused developers and trustees have not yet responded to the formal allegations.
