Man gets 3-year jail for trying to hoodwink DDA

A 63-year-old man has been jailed for three years by a Delhi court for trying to cheat the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) by using forged documents to get a plot converted from leasehold to freehold.

Metropolitan Magistrate Ashok Kumar refused to take a lenient view towards Trilok Singh Bakshi, a resident of Rajouri Garden, saying the punishment for forging documents, committed by him, was “beyond the power of court”.

“Bakshi has been convicted for using forged documents, and thereby, trying to cheat DDA as well as the person lawfully entitled to plot. If he had been successful, he would have impinged upon the vital rights of citizens relating to the property,” the court said.

It also said: “He would have defrauded an organisation like the Delhi Development Authority, which is the owner of the property, and <g data-gr-id="28">law</g> provides a very harsh punishment for such a reprehensible conduct.”

The court’s decision came in a case lodged by DDA official MC Singhal, who had accused Bakshi of having applied for conversion from leasehold to freehold of a plot in Paschim Vihar, which belonged to one Meena Gupta, by forging her signatures and using fake documents in 1994.

The court, while holding Bakshi guilty, also relied on the forensic report, which proved that the convict had forged Gupta’s signatures on the no-objection certificate (NOC) which he had presented before DDA to get the conversion.

It also said that the act of seeking conversion of the plot from leasehold to freehold “is clearly fraudulent act of accused, perpetrated on DDA, and also would have caused wrongful loss to DDA as well as the victim and wrongful gain to the accused...” 

The court rejected Bakshi’s contention that Gupta herself did not file any complaint in the matter, saying she had been cited as a victim and also that “DDA itself is the victim of the offences alleged, which is clear from the discussion that it was sought to be defrauded and would have suffered wrongful loss as owner of the property as well as in reputation, if the act of accused had been successful”.

An FIR was registered against Bakshi and charges were framed against him in 1999 for the offences of attempt to cheat under Sections 420 read with 511 and forging documents under Section 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).