Panvel City police have arrested Deepak Fad, a junior clerk at Panvel Civil Court, for his alleged involvement in issuing multiple fake heirships (succession) certificates. The malpractice was uncovered during an internal investigation.
Fad, who had been working at the court for the last five years, is facing multiple FIRs for allegedly issuing fake challans for succession certificates, despite receiving payments. He is also accused of accepting court fees into a private company account instead of the designated government account.
These fraudulent documents were submitted during pending heirship claims, which is mandatory for property transfer cases.
The case came to light when advocates and court officials discovered several bogus challans related to succession certificates. Court Superintendent Sanchita Gharat checked the challans on the official government website (gras.mahakosh.gov.in) and found that they were not marked as defaced, despite bearing a stamp indicating they had been.
Further investigation revealed discrepancies when scanning the QR codes on the forged challans. The details were not visible on the government website, and the "Type of Payment" column showed "Court fees collected in stamps IGR" split across two lines, instead of one. Some challans also displayed a mobile number listed as "0000000000."
Upon verification, it was found that the user ID "DSC 315" was used to challan which belonged to Fad. He is believed to have forged the challans and bypassed official record-keeping protocols by not submitting copies of the purchased e-challans. Instead, he reportedly placed post-defacement-generated challans directly into court files. Authorities also suspect that the CIN numbers on these challans, which correspond to bank transactions, were forged.
A police official confirmed that Fad manipulated the Case Information System (CIS) to erase records of the forged cases.
The fraudulent documents were created between November of last year and October of this year. Police investigations have confirmed that Fad tampered with official registry numbers and produced fake certificates using counterfeit seals, including those marked “Civil Court Senior Level.”