Palghar, Oct 24 (PTI) The Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar Police in Maharashtra have arrested four persons for allegedly constructing unauthorised structures on land designated for the Virar-Alibaug Multi-modal Corridor project and forging documents to illegally claim compensation, officials said on Saturday.
According to a release, the accused illegally constructed roughly 2,000 unauthorised structures on land designated for state acquisition in Mori village.
The accused gathered advance intelligence between 2022 and 2023 regarding specific survey numbers in Mori village, under the jurisdiction of the Naigaon Police Station, that were earmarked for government acquisition.
To fraudulently extract high compensation payouts, the group constructed approximately 2,000 box-type single-room structures measuring around 10 by 10 feet each, without obtaining required permissions from planning authorities, police said.
To meet government eligibility criteria for compensation, the accused created forged documents and submitted them to the Group Gram Panchayat to falsely enrol the unauthorised structures into assessment records for “house tax”.
The illegal activities were initially reported by a Talathi (revenue official), leading to the registration of a case at Naigaon police station on September 29, 2026, under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966, police said.
Further investigations unearthed a wider criminal conspiracy involving landowners and accomplices, prompting police to add severe charges under Indian Penal Code sections 420 for cheating, 465, 467, 468, 471, and 474 for document forgery and possession, and 120B for criminal conspiracy.
Police have arrested four persons and are investigating land transactions, construction documents, and financial trails to identify and apprehend other co-conspirators.
The Virar-Alibaug Multimodal Corridor (VAMC) is a 126-km, 8-to-14-lane greenfield access-controlled expressway being built in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). PTI COR NSK
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