Nashik: The Sarkarwada police have arrested a developer in connection with an alleged cheating case involving 197 landlords, builders, and developers accused of bypassing the mandatory 20% reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in residential projects exceeding 4,000 sq m.The developer, linked to a project in Nashik city, was called in for questioning on Monday and subsequently arrested. A court remanded him to police custody till March 20.Senior officials from Sarkarwada police station said they received a list of 197 individuals from the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) and the tehsil office, tied to 49 projects where forged documents were allegedly used to evade the EWS quota. “We have received a total of 197 names of landlords, builders and developers… where there was alleged cheating with the help of forged documents to bypass the 20% reservation,” an official said.Many of those named in the case have approached lawyers seeking anticipatory bail.The FIR was registered on March 7 following a complaint by a land records department officer, based on findings of a committee led by the additional district collector of Nashik. The probe examined whether developers complied with state housing policies of 2013 and 2017, which mandate reserving 20% of land in large projects for EWS housing.Within NMC limits, such reserved housing must be allotted through MHADA.Investigators found that in areas including Mhasrul, Vihitgaon, Wadner Dumala, Deolali, Agar Takli, Adgaon, Nandur Dasak, Panchak, Gangapur and Chehdi, a total of 104 landlords and 93 builders and developers allegedly manipulated land records. They are accused of splitting large plots into smaller parcels to keep projects below the 4,000 sq m threshold and avoid the EWS requirement.The FIR invokes sections 318(4) (cheating), 335 (creating false documents), 336 (forgery), and other provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
