Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Man badly cheated by Bijlani, seeks justice' that was published in Newsband

Man badly cheated by Bijlani, seeks justice

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Mumbai crime branch have been desperately trying to get their hands at the absconding builder Suresh Bijlani who is wanted in the SK Lahoria murder case. They were trying to seal all his properties and while doing so they came across a Katkari tribal who complained of having been badly cheated by Bijlani.

This tribal is an old man from Dhamoli, Kharghar. He is an illiterate man and Bijlani took undue advantage of this weak point of his.

This Katkari family had handed to CIDCO five acres of their land during the construction of Navi Mumbai in the early seventies. The family did receive compensation. They were given a developed land with water & sewage connections. This land was around 1700 sq m and located in Kharghar. But this Katkari tribal had a tough time getting the compensation. He had to wait till 2007 to get this land. But when he at last got the land from CIDCO he found that there was already a 17-storey building constructed over there.

When the Katkari tribal and his family demanded their land, they were threatened, held at gun point and forcibly made to give their thumb impressions on the documents by the builder who was none other than Bijlani. However, the builder handed a cheque of Rs 2 lakhs to the family.

The Katkari tribal passed on all these information when he was called to the Economic Offence Wing, Navi Mumbai in connection with Lahoria murder case. Now it is left to be seen whether this man will be done justice to once the police manages to arrest Bijlani.