The plot in Hyderabad

MUMBAI: An employee of a private company has been arrested by the Mumbai police for allegedly forging documents of a property in Hyderabad and selling the plot worth Rs 300 crore to a Kashmir-based hospitality firm. A few others were involved in the fraud, the police said.

The arrested accused, Sundaram Kolrukudro Ravindran (64 ), a resident Hyderabad, was arrested on Friday by officials of unit 9 of the Economic Offences Wing. He has been booked for cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. Also, officials said they are looking for others-P Suresh Kumar, Mohammed Usman, Mukesh Gupta.

The police also said they are examining the roles of two brothers of the Kashmir-based firm, Iris Hospitality-Amit Amla and Arjun Amla in connection with this case.

The Mumbai-based construction firm, Niharika Infrastructure, has alleged that it had bought a century-old heritage property, known as Kingkothi, measuring 28,106 square yards at Nazri Bagh Palace in Hyderabad from the Nazri Bagh Palace Trust three years ago.

When officials of the company visited Hyderabad in June this year, they found out from the office of the Hyderabad registrar that the palace had recently been transferred to the name of Iris Hospitality.

"During inquiries, it transpired that all the accused including two former employees of Niharika Infrastructure had made a sale deed with Iris Hospitality in January this year and sold the property," said an official. "Ravindran and Suresh Kumar had signed on behalf of the company even though they were not authorised to do so."

The police said that they have stumbled upon "strong" evidence in the form of emails exchanged between Kumar and Ravindran which mention about the Hyderabad palace.

The police said that after registering the criminal offence, they had issued lookout notices against the accused as they suspected that the accused would flee the country.

This came to light recently when the immigration department in Hyderabad intimated the police that Ravindranhad tried to board a flight to Singapore in October 10, but had been stopped by the immigration officials due to the lookout notice against him.

The palace is a heritage property which was the last residence of the last Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan before its accession to India. Nizam died in 1967 due to illness. The palace consists of the main building, now converted into a hospital, controlled by the government.

