Popular Builders’ promoter, Raman Patel, was on Sunday held in a land grabbing case which allegedly took place in 1977. The arrest came in the wake of a complaint filed on December 21 by an 85-year-old man from Thaltej gaam.
In his complaint he alleged that his ancestral agricultural land, measuring about 200 acres, located in Thaltej, was grabbed by Patel and his aides, by floating an agricultural cooperative in 1977.
An officer of Sola police said that Patel’s custody was taken from the Sabarmati Central Jail where he has been lodged since August last year.
In his FIR with Sola police, Khodaji Thakor, said he recently obtained land documents though RTI after which he learned that his land was in the name of one Someshwar Kheti Sahkari Mandali, and had been transferred to the cooperative in 1977.
Thakor said as he is old now and could not work, he decided to sell the agricultural land but learned that the plot, which was transferred to his name in 1956, was sold to the office-bearers of Someshwar Kheti Sahkari Mandali.
He said that neither he nor his wife, the co-owner of the land, had made any land deal with any person. He said that the price of the land on the deal document was shown to be Rs 6,078. The FIR says that Patel and four others hatched a criminal conspiracy and grabbed Thakor’s ancestral land.
As of now, Patel and other promoters of Popular Builders have been facing charges of land-grabbing in five FIRs filed at different police stations in the city.