The Mumbai Police have arrested a 58-year-old woman, Abida Jaffar Ismail, who is accused of conspiring with her brothers to sell a valuable property worth Rs 100 crore to a developer without informing her cousin brothers and sisters, who also had an equal share in the property. The property in question spans more than 2 acres and is located in prime central Mumbai, featuring three existing tenanted buildings.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW), specifically the general cheating cell, took Abida Jaffar Ismail into custody. Abida, a native of Mysore in Karnataka, was arrested from a hotel in Mysore. She was subsequently presented before the 47th Metropolitan Court and remanded to judicial custody.
The complainant in this case is Abida's cousin brother, Ayaz Kapadia. The expansive property is jointly owned by Ayaz Kapadia's late father, Jaffar Kapadia, and his brother, Latif Kapadia. The property, comprised of three CTS (Cadastral Topographical Survey) numbers, is located on Delai Road in Lower Parel, a prime central Mumbai area that has transformed into a bustling business hub.
TOI reported that this property includes three tenanted buildings: Zia Masoom Chawl, Bhaiya Chapra Chawl, and Irani Chawl, housing multiple tenants who have consistently paid monthly rents to Latif's family. Maintenance and other property-related matters have been handled by Latif's eldest son, Aziz Kapadia, who is 74 years old.
According to the reports in TOI, Ayaz Kapadia discovered that Latif Kapadia and his family had allegedly entered into an agreement with Big Tree Developers by falsely declaring 100% ownership of all three properties. This was done by registering the documents in the office of the joint sub-registrar at the old customs office without the knowledge of Ayaz and his siblings. Ayaz claims that this fraudulent act deprived them of their rightful shares in the property. As a result, Ayaz Kapadia has initiated legal proceedings against Rahim Latif Kapadia, Amina Usman, Abida Jaffar Ismail, and Malik Latif Kapadia. Police investigations revealed that Amina, who holds the power of attorney for her brothers, participated in the deal with the developer and received Rs 3.5 crore. Additionally, she was promised two flats in the new buildings. While the exact deal amount remains undisclosed, police estimate the combined value of the three properties to be approximately Rs 50 crore.
In the course of preliminary inquiries, it was discovered that Amina and her brothers, Rahim and Malik, were facing financial difficulties. This may have led them to conspire to secretly strike a deal with the developer. However, the current situation has left the developer entangled in litigation.