Newlinkroad's Blog

Our Forum has been campaigning for checking the CTS maps for their authenticity as we knew that many illegal structures were falsely claiming. After repeated efforts, we are glad to see the truth behind these maps exposed.

Ahmed.Ali@timesofindia.com reported in the Times of India of 28th June 2025 as follows:

Mumbai : Officials from the city survey department, in connivance with real estate agents, private individuals and property owners, tampered with original city survey maps, cutting holes into the maps and doctoring them to show fake pre-1991 constructions. These doctored maps were then used to falsely claim legal status for illegal constructions in CRZ and NDZ (no development zone) areas, according to the second chargesheet filed in the case by city crime branch unit 2 this month.
Duplicate copies of these falsified maps were issued to agents and owners in exchange for bribes and later submitted to courts and regulatory authorities as genuine documents, the chargesheet states.

The crime branch’s SIT submitted a 1,600-page chargesheet against seven accused: Soma Shripati Marade, a sepoy; Imam Mehboob Shaikh, a property owner; Narashim Roganna Puttavalle, a construction contractor; Shambhuraje Babanrao Wable, a city survey officer; Anil Shankar Dabhole, the conservation surveyor and acting registrar; and Kailas Tukaram Dhomse and Shantaram Vaman Shinde, both conservation surveyors.
The chargesheet details the conspiracy involving officials of the Goregaon office of the city survey department, property agents, and private individuals. It mentions how govt officers tampered with land records by forging survey maps, enabling unauthorized construction on protected and undeveloped lands in Malvani, Erangal and Poisar.
The manipulation was first flagged by a farmer from Erangal in Malad, Vaibhav Thakur, who owns ancestral farmland. He registered an FIR at Goregaon police station in 2021 against illegal constructions on his plot and adjoining lands. Thakur found govt records were forged to classify CRZ and NDZ plots as developable zones. But local authorities, including BMC and Goregaon police, failed to make headway. Thakur approached HC, which directed the crime branch to form an SIT.
“So far, inquiry suggests the gang has manipulated more than 400 properties, and we have been able to identify 345 maps. On SIT’s report, BMC has, in six months, demolished more than 70 illegal bungalows or structures in the vicinity of Malvani, Erangal, Madh Island, Goregaon and Poisar,” an official said.
SIT sources said proposals seeking sanction for prosecution of officials under Section 197 of the IPC have been submitted to the state revenue department and the director of land records.