Mumbai Crime: Man tries to steal brother’s property with fake documents

Michael Pereira

The Goregaon police have arrested a man in Manori-Gorai at Borivli West, for allegedly taking over the property of his younger brother with the help of forged documents. According to the police sources, Dean Pereira, 53, the owner of the Dominic Holiday Homes at Manori, Gorai had submitted a written complaint against his elder brother Micheal Pereira in the year 2020. In his complaint, Pereira wrote that when his wife Savina witnessed Micheal cutting off some trees and renovating the property belonging to Dean, she alerted the BMC authority and police on Twitter about the illegal construction.

Michael had then posted on her Twitter account that he was the owner of the property. He also posted official documents from the registrar officer and said that the entire property belonged to him as Dean had given him rights in 2011. "When I enquired with Dean (husband), he denied Michael's claims. He said he never signed on any document nor he had given rights of his property to Michael. The documents submitted by Michael are fake and the signature of Dean is forged from his driving license in 2011," Savina.

"We sought all the documents and thoroughly verified them. We found that Michael had registered their hotel, resort and other properties worth more than R1 crore fraudulently by making and submitting the forged documents to the government authority. We had approached the Goregaon police station and submitted a written complaint in 2020. However, due to Covid lockdown, the authorities were busy with more important work," said Savina.

"We were called by the Goregaon police last week. They have registered the case and arrested the accused," said Savina. She added, "My husband suffers from a serious illness and Michael felt that since we do not have kids and Dean could die any day, he tried to grab our property." Senior inspector Datatry Thopte said, "We have registered a case against Micheal for forgery and cheating. He has been arrested and has been remanded in police custody by the court."