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A special court in Mumbai has acquitted builder Chaitanya Laxmidas Vora in a 44-year-old case involving alleged manipulation of land measurement records to secure additional Floor Space Index (FSI) benefits. The court held that the prosecution failed to establish the charges due to insufficient evidence, the absence of key witnesses and the inability to produce original revenue records or prove document forgery. The alleged offence related to changes made to the recorded area of a Vile Parle property between 1980 and 1982, while the First Information Report (FIR) was registered only in 1992 and the chargesheet was filed in 2016. The trial commenced this year, by which time several accused and witnesses had died or were untraceable.
A special court in Mumbai has acquitted builder Chaitanya Laxmidas Vora in a 44-year-old case concerning the alleged manipulation of land measurement records to obtain a higher Floor Space Index (FSI). The judgment, delivered earlier this week by Special Judge Shayana Patil, concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove any offence against Vora, the sole surviving accused in the matter.
The case stemmed from allegations that the area of a property in Vile Parle was fraudulently increased between February 1980 and December 1982 to enable the builders to secure additional FSI benefits. According to the prosecution, maintenance surveyor Kedu Pandurang Bhalerao, a public servant, allegedly conspired with the builders and an architect to increase the recorded plot area from 1,179.6 sq. m. to 1,249.9 sq. m., representing an increase of approximately 5.9%. The alleged alteration was said to have enabled the developers to obtain an undue planning advantage.
Although the alleged offence occurred in the early 1980s, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) registered the FIR on 3 October 1992. The investigation continued for more than two decades before the chargesheet was filed on 7 May 2016. The trial commenced only this year, by which time several of those connected with the case were no longer available to testify.
Proceedings against co-accused Kedu Pandurang Bhalerao and builder Laxmidas Hargovinddas Vora were abated following their deaths in 2024. Three other individuals originally named in the FIR had also died during the course of the investigation. The court further noted that several prosecution witnesses could not be traced when the trial began, while the original complainant, former police inspector Ramkrishna Gosavi, was unable to depose because he had been suffering from dementia since 2001.
During the trial, the prosecution examined only three witnesses. The court observed that it had failed to produce the original revenue records or establish that any specific document had been forged to alter the recorded area of the plot. It also found that there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate how or under what circumstances any alleged manipulation of land records had taken place.
Judge Patil also held that the provisions relating to criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act were not applicable to Vora, as he was a private builder and not a public servant. On the basis of the evidence presented, the court concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove the allegations beyond the required legal standard and acquitted the builder of all charges.
Source - PTI
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