Mumbai: Fresh FIR registered against ‘con man’ in flat usurpation case

The Andheri building that houses the two-bedroom flat, which was allegedly usurped by the accused; The accused Clarence Pereira with his wife Nancy; Bharat Patel, 65, the complainant

Two months after mid-day exposed con artist Clarence Pereira's alleged plan to usurp an elderly man's two-bedroom Andheri flat using forged documents, the police booked him in a fresh case related to cheating, forgery and house trespass on December 9.

The complainant, Bharat Patel, 65, told this newspaper that the Andheri police had not made Pereira's son Raphel and daughter Rachel co-accused. Pereira is yet to be arrested.

"This FIR was published only because mid-day highlighted my ordeal two months ago after which Andheri police were forced to scan Pereira's forged documents about which I had been telling them for months. I am thankful to the entire mid-day team for raising the voice of a common man," said the complainant, who is the legal custodian of a two-bedroom flat at a housing society in Andheri East.

"Immediately after the report came out, the Pereira family went underground after locking the flat. But, in the absence of an immediate crackdown, they returned to the flat and started living fearlessly," he added.

Health woes

"I am asthmatic and diabetic with high blood pressure. But I had to run from the DCP office to Andheri police station from my rented house in Dahisar to get Pereira booked to safeguard my property. I am a common man who somehow managed to buy this property to have a shelter in Mumbai. But the con artist and his family members have been still living in the two-bedroom flat despite the registration of an FIR. When will this flat be back in my possession," asked the complainant.

Patel had given this property on rent to Raphel in February and since then, the Pereira family, comprising Clarence, his wife Nancy and Rachel started to live together in the flat.

But, due to some reasons, Patel decided to sell his flat in March. And whenever a potential buyer would visit the property to buy it, the Pereira family would reportedly tell the potential buyers that they had purchased the property from Patel. This was shocking for Patel who confronted Raphel and asked him to vacate the property at the earliest. But Raphel would always buy time, citing reasons to stay in the flat.

Delay tactics

"The Pereira family had deliberately adopted delay tactics so that Clarence could make forged documents to usurp my property," said Patel, who owns a garment shop in Colaba market.

"This was shocking for me. When I asked Raphel to vacate my property, his father Clarence spread a rumour that he had made advance payments to buy this property, and later he showed forged property documents of the property to police and in a court," said Patel, who had also registered an NC against Raphel on October 11 at the Andheri police station.

"But, Raphel has not been made co-accused in the FIR. Also, Rachel had fought with my daughter-in-law at the flat claiming that her father had purchased the flat. The entire Pereira family are con artists and they should be sent behind bars without any further delay," he added.

His son Vipin Patel said, "After the mid-day story published on October 12, the Andheri police had called Pereira who reached there with a set of fake documents of my property. But the cops did not take time to ascertain that the documents are fake."

Nefarious activities

A senior police officer said, "We have made a water-tight case against Clarence Pereira, who is a con artist. We have learnt that many such cases of forgery have been registered against him in Mumbai. The investigating officer has been asked to conduct a thorough probe into the matter and name all his accomplices in the case as co-accused. Clarence Pereira will soon be arrested."

mid-day has been highlighting the nefarious activities of Pereira who keeps getting arrested but commits similar offences after being released on bail. Last year, He was arrested by the Khar police for illegally grabbing a multi-crore bungalow of an elderly woman at Chuim village and physically assaulting her mentally unstable daughter.