Two property dealers, Ramchandra Kharose and Dhondiram Gadgil, allegedly tried to sell about 427 acres of land belonging to prominent citizens of the city without their knowledge.
Among the 100 citizens whose land was being fraudulently taken away includes the royal family of Kolhapur; the vice-president of Kolhapur chamber of commerce and industry, Lalit Gandhi; owner of RM Mohite Textiles, Dilip Mohite; prominent trader, Abhay Doshi; and others.
According to these landowners, the market value of the land that was being sold is about Rs500 crore.
The police have arrested Kharose, a resident of Pethvadgaon, while Gadgil is absconding.
Kharose had involved Mumbai-based Prithvi Online Trading Pvt Ltd in the sale of the entire land. The company's chairman is Pramod Vichare. It collected Rs61 lakh as booking amount from 84 prospective buyers.
Kharose collected the 7/12 and 8A extracts of the 427 acres of land spread over Girgaon, Pachgaon, Kalamba and Kandalgao areas of the city. He prepared a development plan of the land.
"About six months ago, Kharose approached Vichare and offered to sell this entire of land at the rate of Rs50 lakh per acre to the latter," the police said.
Vichare, oblivious to the fraud committed by Kharose, put up the development plan on the firm's website www.prithvitrading.com. He appointed marketing agents and opened an office in Kolhapur city to sell the land.
He quoted a price of Rs80 lakh per acre, much lower than the prevailing market rate. Naturally the buyers got attracted and 84 of them booked the plots.
"The matter came to light when some buyers went to see the plots for which they had paid an advance. The real landowners were shocked to know that deals had been struck for the sale of their lands without their knowledge," the police said.
Doshi brought the fraud to the notice of Vichare, who summoned Kharose to Doshi's office, where the landowners were present. He was roughed up and handed over to the police.
