Own a plot of land in Bengaluru but don’t live in the city? Beware land sharks who may try to sell it off by impersonating you and creating fake papers.

A gang of seven has just been arrested for cheating several landowners, including a Bengaluru woman settled in the US. Basaveshwara Nagar police zeroed in on the gang while investigating a case of cheating.

The gang, led by a real estate agent named Vinay Kumar alias Stamp Vini, allegedly created the fake documents of a property owned by one Rupalakshmi, who’s settled in the US.

The gang’s lone woman member, Shivamma, was taken to the sub-registrar’s office and introduced as Rupalakshmi a few years ago. The property was subsequently registered in the name of another gang member, Raj Chandrashekar. Last year, the gang sold the property to a man named Basavaraj Yaragal and shared the booty among themselves.

Vinay, who is from Kempegowda Layout, Laggere, told the police that he got to know his associates through a fellow real estate agent named Venkatesh.

Together, the seven suspects decided to take property owners for a ride. Vinay’s job was to identify vacant sites whose owners would not be living in the city. The gang would then create fake land papers, for which it had accumulated vast resources such as stamps of revenue, panchayat and sub-registrar offices, numbering machines, stamp papers, Forms 9, 10 and 11 and other necessary documents. The stamps were supplied by a man named Ramesh.

An officer from Basaveshwara Nagar police said the gang was working on a bigger scam. Vinay had prepared fake documents of at least four properties in Dharitri Layout, Lakshmipura, and other places and was about to register them. The suspects were also working on creating fake documents for four other properties in MEI Layout, Bagalagunte, the officer said, adding that more arrests could follow.