A man who allegedly posed as an additional district sub-registrar and carried out a series of official tasks, including registering properties, was arrested at a government office in Dalhousie in the central business district on Thursday.
Police said Shantanu Chakraborty, in his early-60s, was arrested while carrying out fraudulent activity.
An officer said Chakraborty had been cheating lawyers and their clients by allegedly posing as registrar and putting seals on property documents. He had allegedly “legalised” forged deeds related to properties across the city, including Alipore and Baguiati, the police said.
A registrar’s job is to physically verify the applicants who turn up at the Office of the Registrar of Assurances at Dalhousie for property-related work.
The legal work could include transfer of the title of a property, issuing power of attorney of a property or registering a property in an individual’s name.
“We have received a complaint from a lawyer who had been cheated by this man of more than Rs 2 lakh. Based on the complaint, a case has been initiated against him under IPC sections related to cheating, forgery, impersonation and breach of trust,” said an officer of Hare Street police station.
The police said allegations had emerged that Chakraborty had been impersonating a registrar and using fake stamps to legalise forged property documents.
Two lawyers who had allegedly been cheated by the accused were waiting at the office of the registrar of assurances for Chakraborty to arrive on Thursday afternoon.
“Chakraborty would go to the office, meet lawyers and allegedly take commission to get the work done without any hassle. Later, some of the lawyers realised that the stamps he would put on the documents were fake and they had been duped,” said an officer.
On Thursday, as Chakraborty entered the office, the woman lawyer dialled 100 and alerted the police.
Lalbazar had alerted the local Hare Street police station. A team of officers went to the office of registrar of assurances and detained Chakraborty.
The police said the man had feigned ignorance before admitting to his crime.
“Till now, he has admitted to a few cases. We are trying to find out since when he had been involved in such crimes. We are also trying to find out whether he has associates working for him to lure clients,” the officer said.