Man Booked for Hiding Religious Identity to Sell Property in Ahmadabad

A resident of Vasna Road in Gujarat’s Ahmadabad has been was booked under the Disturbed Areas Act, cheating and forging documents, to sell his property to a person from a different religion.

The act prohibits sale of property in an area covered under the act to a person from different religion without permission from the district collector. The accused has been identified as Feroze Contractor and reportedly concealed his religion and forged documents to sell the plot of land in Samarpan Society on Vasna Road to a person named Feroze Patel, his mother Hanifa and brother Sabir Patel, the Times of India reported.

The case was reported by Manish Malhotra, the president of the society. He alleged that Contractor is a Parsi but did not reveal it while applying for permission from the district administration to sell the plot to Patel.

He said that Contractor kept his religious identity hidden to create an impression that he and Feroze belonged to the same religion.

Contractor has also reportedly been accused of mentioning Tandalja as his address even though he does not live there. Contractor had purchased the land from Dashrathlal Panchal and knew about the procedure of selling and buying the land and the Act. The case of hidden identity came to light recently when Patel started construction on the plot. The residents came to know that the current owner is Patel and then shut one of the gates of the society. They approached the police and filed a complaint against Contractor.

Police said that Contractor is yet to be arrested as they are collecting documentary evidence against him, the TOI report said.

The Act, also known as the Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act, 1991, is aimed at preventing sale of properties in communally-sensitive areas. The Act is currently applicable in parts of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Bharuch, Kapadvanj, Anand and Godhra towns. This Act mandates the permission of district collector for the sale or transfer of property in the areas notified as “disturbed” to ensure that the sale was not out of any distress or compulsion, and to see that the seller had received a fair price.