Jaisalmer:
A 92-year-old war veteran is fighting a legal battle to save his 25-bigha agricultural land in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district that was allegedly sold and transferred using forged documents without his knowledge.
Retired Honorary Captain Chunni Lal had fought the 1962, 1965, and 1971 wars for the Indian Army.
A resident of Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, he was displaced due to the Pong Dam project and had been allotted 25 bighas of agricultural land in the Mohangarh area in Jaisalmer in 2002, said police.
However, due to a lack of irrigation and other facilities in the early years, he returned to his home state. A neighbour initially looked after the land, but it later remained vacant for a long period. Recently, when he inquired about his land, he found out it had been transferred to another person.
The former soldier alleged that an imposter posing as him appeared at the sub-registrar’s office on June 16 to get the sale deed executed. The deed, according to the FIR, was prepared, and the land was transferred based on a fake photograph, forged signatures, a forged Aadhaar card, and other fabricated documents.
The land’s mutation was recorded at the tehsil office on June 22.
A case has been filed against four individuals — Mohanlal, Dhannaram, Karnaram, and Omprakash – for cheating and forgery after Captain Lal filed a police complaint alleging a conspiracy to usurp his property.
He stated that after serving in three wars, he never imagined he would have to make rounds of government offices and police stations to save his land. He asserted that had the identity documents been properly verified during the registration process, the alleged fraud would not have occurred.
His son, Multan Singh Thakur, described the legal battle as his life’s “fourth war”.
“The Superintendent of Police has assured my father that he would get his land back. For the last three days, we have been running from one office to another. My father’s condition has deteriorated so much that he was falling asleep even while giving fingerprints. He is a heart patient, yet he remains determined to fight this fourth battle,” he told news agency ANI.
The preliminary probe that revealed that records for several agricultural land parcels in Mohangarh remain offline.
It is suspected that the land belonging to individuals who have been away for extended periods is being targeted and forged documents are allegedly being created in attempts to execute illegal property registrations.
The police are now examining registration-related documents, identity records, and revenue documents to identify fraudulent registrations and the roles of those involved in such conspiracies.
(Inputs by Shrikant)
