A Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted following an order from the Bombay High Court, has uncovered a land scam involving widespread tampering of property records. The scam allegedly facilitated the conversion of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and No Development Zone (NDZ) lands into developable plots along the Mumbai coastline. Four individuals, including two retired government employees, were arrested last week in connection with the scam, which is linked to alterations in at least 102 property maps along the coast. Officials have also summoned 18 government staff members from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the land records department for questioning. The scam reportedly involves a nexus of estate agents, government staff, and contractors who manipulated land records in ecologically sensitive areas such as Marve, Madh Island, and Versova. The manipulation came to light when Vaibhav Thakur, a farmer from Erangal in Malad who owns ancestral farmland, reported illegal constructions on his plot and adjoining lands to the Goregaon police in 2021. Thakur claimed that government records had been falsified to reclassify CRZ and NDZ plots as developable zones. Despite his complaint, authorities, including the BMC and Goregaon police, made little progress in investigating the issue. Later, deputy superintendent of land records, Nitin Salunkhe, lodged another FIR in 2021, alleging that maps and documents had been forged between 2012 and 2020 to legalize illegal constructions in environmentally sensitive areas. The issue gained attention in the legislative assembly in 2022, prompting the government to form an inquiry committee. The committee’s findings were subsequently presented to the High Court after Thakur filed a plea highlighting the inaction of authorities despite the committee’s report. In October 2024, the High Court directed the establishment of an SIT to investigate four FIRs related to the scam. The SIT, led by Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Lakhmi Gautam, has so far made four arrests. Investigators revealed that the accused, in collusion with government staff, manipulated property maps and records by adding false details such as fabricated City Survey numbers, non-existent constructions, and altered boundaries. Fraudulent maps were reportedly distributed under the pretext of RTI requests. BMC officials allegedly approved constructions and sales based on these falsified documents, resulting in severe ecological damage and significant revenue losses for the government. Investigations uncovered that 102 of the 884 permanent enumeration maps, dating from 1955 to 1984 and stored in the deputy superintendent’s office, had been fraudulently altered to show constructions that did not exist before 1964. Following the SIT’s findings, the Maharashtra government directed the principal secretary of Urban Development and the Director of Land Records in Pune to take action against those involved in tampering with public records. The SIT has confiscated all 884 original maps along with their digital copies from the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre in Nagpur. The investigation will continue to identify additional suspects and verify the authenticity of the documents. Last Thursday, the SIT arrested contractor Narshim Puttawallu, aged 50, who is implicated in all four FIRs. Two retired City Survey Office officers, identified as Devdas Jadhav and Marade, along with real estate agent Imam Shaikh, were also arrested. The accused have been charged with forging records in collaboration with officers from the BMC and Land Records Department. A senior police official stated that illegal constructions on CRZ and NDZ lands had severely disrupted the ecological balance and caused substantial revenue losses. The official added that investigations had been delayed due to the election process, but 18 officials from the BMC and Land Records Department had been summoned for questioning.