Mumbai Four people, including two women, have been booked for allegedly taking over actress Gehna Vasisth, also known as Vandana Tiwari’s house in Malad West.
The actor realised that her flat was usurped when in June 2022, she tried to visit the house, but was not allowed to enter by the occupants. According to the police officers, the four have been identified as Sujata Shetty, Waseem Shaikh, Ruksana Ansari and Shoaib Ansari, who allegedly forged the documents of ownership of the MHADA flat worth ₹60 lakh and usurped it. All the accused have been issued notices to be present before the police to record their statements.
However, the actor has been trying to file a First Information Report (FIR) regarding the same for the last one year, but the police registered the FIR only after instructions from the former police commissioner Sanjay Pandey.
Vasisth, a resident of Andheri, said that in 2018, she had bought the flat and wanted to rent it out. “I used to visit a medical store owned by Shaikh, who told me that he was an estate agent and would help me find tenants,” said Vashisht.
She had already found tenants, but her society secretary called her and informed her that she had to engage the services of a real estate agent, and hence, she got in touch with Shaikh for the same.
“With the help of Shaikh, I rented the flat out to Sujata Shetty at a rent of ₹18,000 and a deposit of ₹80,000. During lockdown, Shetty told me that she will not be able to pay rent for five months and will settle it later. I agreed to that. After paying the amount, she asked for an extension of the agreement, which I also agreed to,” said Vasisth and added that she was then arrested in 2021, after which she lost track of the tenants.
“Since January 2021, I haven’t received the rent. I got suspicious and spoke to Shaikh, who promised to settle the amount,” Vasisth said.
Later, she received a call from her society secretary again, asking her who her tenant was. “The secretary informed me that some woman named Ruksana was staying in the flat which she had taken on rent from Shetty,” Vasisth said. She added that she had been paying for the maintenance for all these years.
Upon investigation, it was found that Sujata Shetty had forged documents of the ownership of the flat and usurped it. “I later learnt that Shaikh was also involved in the forgery,” said Vasisth. The actor added that when she tried to contact Shaikh and Shetty, they abused her and refused to hand over the flat.
Vasisth said that she then approached the Malwani police but for a year the police ignored her complaint. “It was only after I met former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey, he instructed the police to register my FIR. Even after that, the police have been unable to arrest the accused and give me my flat back. They keep asking me to get the bank loan documents, statements, ownership agreement etc which I have submitted several times. I have bought this flat with my hard-earned money and now someone else is staying in it and claiming to be the owner and I am the one still paying the maintenance,” said Vashisht.
“We have registered a case of cheating and forgery against the four people and have sent summons to the accused,” said Shekhar Bhalerao, senior police inspector of Malwani police station.