Former MLA held in land grab case sent in police custody

NCP leader and former MLA Gilbert Mendonca, arrested in a land-grabbing case, was today remanded in police custody till August 3 by a local court.
Mendonca, arrested yesterday, was produced before Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate M R Deshpande, who allowed police's plea and sent him to their custody till August 3.
Pleading for his custodial interrogation, the prosecution told the court that police had to further probe the case and find out if more persons were involved in the matter related to alleged fraud and fabrication of land records.
According to police, Mendonca and others pressured a woman named Pilloo Mehta to impersonate one Silloo Mistry, who owned 107 acres of prime land worth Rs 875 crore on Ghodbunder Road here in order to grab the property.

Pilloo had moved Bombay High Court claiming her land had been encroached upon and police were not taking action.
But when the case came up for hearing, 90-year-old Silloo's son, who is a lawyer, told the court that his mother had not filed any case, and Pilloo was impersonating her.

The high court ordered a probe. Thereafter, in February, police filed an FIR against Pilloo, her brother Kersi Minoo Guard, Mendonca, his associate Ashok Hire and advocate G B Lal under IPC sections related to cheating and forgery, among others.
Mendonca's counsel Rajan Salunke today told the court even his client had been cheated by Pilloo, who according to him, forged land records and submitted them to authorities.

"We thought the land records were in order and it was only when she appeared in the high court we came to know she was not the person who owned the land," the counsel said.
Opposing the custody plea, Salunke said investigations have been going on since the last five months during which Mendonca cooperated with the investigating agency and will continue to do so in future.
After hearing both sides, the judge accepted police plea for custody of the former MLA from Mira-Bhayander, a Mumbai suburb.