Court orders action against seven for cheating, forging will to transfer Bandra villa

A metropolitan magistrate in Mumbai has taken cognisance of cheating and forgery offences and issued summons to seven accused persons, including a doctor, for allegedly forging a will to transfer a prime property worth ₹600 crore ($81 million). The order came on a private complaint filed by a social activist against the accused. The magistrate held that the disputed will was "not genuine" and there was enough material to infer cheating and forgery. The accused have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Rejecting a police investigation report which said that no offence was made out, the metropolitan magistrate, 12th court, Bandra, on Monday took cognisance of the offences of cheating and forgery and issued summons to seven accused persons, including a doctor, for allegedly forging a will to transfer a prime piece of property at Bandra worth an estimated ₹600 crore.

Mumbai, India. Jan 29,2024 - Marine Manor, an old bungalow at Mount Mary in Bandra, Mumbai bequeathed by the owner to the Archdiocese of Mumbai for charity purposes, has been at the centre of a legal dispute after a second will emerged The execution of the disputed will has been stayed by the High Court. Jan 29,2024. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

The order came on a private complaint filed by Thane-based social activist Melwyn Fernandes against Vasai resident Marina Manuel Fernandes, estate agent Remy Fernandes and five others who were all party to the forged will for transferring the property. The magistrate, Komalsing Rajput, held that the disputed will was “not genuine”.

“There is enough material to draw the inference of cheating and forgery. The conclusions arrived at by the Investigating Officer are not proper and correct. The disputed document of will is now under challenge before the High Court and its execution is stayed by the High Court. All the proposed accused persons are connected with the allegations. Prime facie case made out,” (sic) said the order by Rajput dated January 9, 2024, and uploaded recently.

The order mandated that all the accused be booked for offences punishable under IPC sections 420 (cheating) 465 (punishment for forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will etc) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document). The others indicted included power-of-attorney holders Mohit Shah, Paul Fernandes, witnesses to the forged will Danny Thomas Joseph and Cecelia Lobo, and Dr Ajay Keni, who allegedly issued a medical certificate without ever treating property owner Marie Fernandes.

The property in question was originally owned by Martha Eugenie Pereira and spans 2,538 sq m of land with an old villa, Marina Manor, on it. According to the complaint, Pereira left the property to her niece, Marie Fernandes, as the sole trustee and executrix in her will executed on December 4, 1972. The will was probated by Marie Fernandes in 1987.

Pereira had bequeathed 919 sq m of the land to Marie Fernandes, who gave it to Samudra Builders for construction, while the other 1,619 sq m, along with Marine Manor bungalow, was bequeathed to the Archdiocese of Bombay upon her death. The property was meant to be used to build an educational institution in memory of Martha Pereira’s husband, Joseph Felix Pereira. Before her death in 2015, Fernandes executed the will on March 15, 2012, in favour of her cousin Marion Crasto, now 72.

According to the complaint, Marina Fernandes and six others prepared an allegedly false will dated November 8, 2014 of the deceased Marie Fernandes which bore her forged signature. This was probated on November 16, 2017 based on false and misleading information given to the high court, the complaint said. Justice Arif S Doctor of the Bombay high court had in February 2023 stayed the execution of this will after Marion Crasto objected to it.

Following Melwyn Fernandes’s complaint, the metropolitan court had ordered an investigation under Section 202 of the CrPC, but the investigation officer gave a report that the matter was of a civil nature and no offence was made out.

Rejecting the police contention, magistrate Rajput observed, “The copy of the original will is on record. The copy of another will allegedly forged by accused persons is also on record. In both these documents, substantial difference has been noticed particularly about the signature and mental condition of the testator. The other documents produced, and fact and circumstances came on record, particularly in signature, relationship among the parties and other facts and circumstances clearly reflect that the disputed will is not genuine.” (sic)

Senior advocate Sunita Banis, during her arguments before the magistrate as well as the high court, pointed out that Marie Fernandes had suffered a stroke on the right side of her body in August 2011 and was not in a position to sign, and relied on her thumb impressions on legal documents. A 2011 medical certificate by Dr Sushil Tandel, a consulting neurologist at Holy Family Hospital, corroborated this.

“Many Catholic properties in the western suburbs are being usurped by developers by using bogus documents in the name of proxy landowners,” said Melwyn Fernandes. “This particular plot was generously donated to the Archdiocese of Bombay to build a school and for other charitable causes. I would urge the high court to probate high-value properties like this only after a thorough verification of claims made by any strangers or unknown persons.”