Noida airport land scam explodes; crores lost in high-stakes Jewar property fraud

Jewar

As the Noida International Airport in Jewar inches closer to completion, the surrounding region has become a hotspot for real estate fraud, with multiple cases of investors being duped in elaborate land scams. Police across Gautam Buddha Nagar, Aligarh, and adjoining districts have registered dozens of cases, uncovering fraudulent deals worth crores.

According to The Indian Express, one such case involves Gaurav Sharma, a Noida-based consultant, who along with three business partners, was allegedly cheated of Rs 24 crore by a group of 15 individuals. The accused, including mastermind Ravinder Sharma, had promised agricultural land near the upcoming airport but later vanished after producing fake registration documents and non-existent plots.

“Given the proximity to the upcoming airport, we thought it was a good deal since prices were bound to shoot up,” Sharma was cited by the publication. The group had reportedly paid half their agreed sum before they uncovered that the promised properties simply did not exist. Sharma and his partners described a convincing web of forged paperwork, fake registrations and imposter “farmers” and “lawyers” presented to them as part of the ruse.

The real estate boom triggered by the airport project has given rise to a parallel surge in fraud cases. Police in Gautam Buddha Nagar district encompassing Jewar say land sales have soared and with them, crimes involving bogus land titles and repeated resale of the same plots to multiple buyers.

Over the past two years, police have registered at least 20 first information reports for such fraudulent property deals, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police Saad Miya Khan. “On an average, there is one FIR registered every month of people being duped in the name of buying property near the airport,” Khan stated, as cited by The Indian Express.

Investigations have uncovered an array of scams spreading beyond Jewar to adjoining districts such as Aligarh and Ghaziabad, fuelled by steep jumps in circle rates and a frenetic appetite for land. One elaborate case probed by Aligarh Police unearthed a Rs 60.89 crore land racket, where actors posing as representatives of Noida-based JSM Pro Infratech Pvt Ltd allegedly duped scores of investors, local farmers and even government officials. The police reportedly found that the company hawked plots using doctored maps, promised future townships and in many cases, executed sales without even owning the land involved.

Ordinary aspirants and small farmers have been frequent targets. Among them is daily-wage worker Jitendra Prasad Singh, who was reported by The Indian Express on how he transferred money for a “plot” marked on a map only to discover on site that no such property, or even company presence, existed. “They said many like me had been turning up and enquiring about plots that didn’t exist,” Singh was quoted as saying.

The scams have also devastated farmers such as Jainendra Kumar Laur, who sold a small parcel to pay off medical debt, only to later discover forged documents recording him as having sold far more than agreed. Authorities subsequently identified nearly 41,000 sqm in Goraula village acquired through fraudulent means, attaching property worth over Rs 60 crore following multiple police reports.

The Indian Express reported that the landscape near the airport, once rolling farm fields, now bristles with slick, neon-lit real estate offices set up by both established locals and outsiders. Some office owners insisted that genuine farmers and panchayat members had nothing to fear, blaming outsiders for the swindle epidemic. “We have been farmers here, if we commit a fraud, we will be caught. People know us,” one local realtor was cited by The Indian Express.

The increasing land rates, circle rates for agricultural land, expected to jump by 70% soon, have only intensified the temptation for fraudsters. Deputy Commissioner of Police Shakti Mohan Avasthy described how many scams begin with attractive online advertisements and fake websites, drawing in victims from across the National Capital Region and beyond.