Mumbai: Crime Branch Unit 2 of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the alleged Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) map forgery on Wednesday arrested two retired surveyors of the land records department for their alleged roles in manipulating 20 CRZ maps of Erangal, Malvani, Poisar, and Akurli. With their arrest, the number of total arrests in one of the four cases in the fraud rose to 10.
The SIT arrested former land conservation surveyor Shantaram Shinde (61) and former land surveyor Kailash Dhomse (60) for allegedly playing key roles in preparing and validating forged duplicate maps between June and Dec 2019, misleading authorities, and facilitating illegal construction and land grab involvement in the tampering of official land survey maps to show bogus constructions across multiple areas, including Erangal, Malvani, Poisar, and Akurli

Shinde, who was given additional charge of the Erangal region in Nov 2019, is accused of signing off on maps showing fabricated structures without proper verification against original records, and revision maps. Investigators alleged that he failed to conduct due diligence and instead approved manipulated copies, some of which were found to have false ditches and construction markings.
Dhomse, also employed as a conservation surveyor at the Goregaon office, is similarly charged with negligence and active participation in producing fraudulent land survey documents. The forged maps reportedly benefited certain property owners and brokers who are also under investigation.
Both were remanded to police custody.
Investigators suspect a larger network of govt officials and private agents may be involved in the fraud, which spans more than 78 original city survey maps.