The Thane police took cognisance of mid-day’s report on November 8 on an elderly tribal woman, Bhagirathi Mukne of Bhiwandi’s Dugad village, and how fraudsters used her details to impersonate a dead woman to claim Rs 90-lakh government compensation for land, and arrested six people including the sarpanch of the village this week. However, after the police crackdown began following mid-day’s story, Mukne has gone missing, claimed activists, who fear for her safety. 

The fraudsters, allegedly in connivance with some government officers at SDO, Bhiwandi, had used Mukne’s documents to show a dead woman, Thaki Sakhya Savar, as alive by making her fake Aadhaar card, bank account and relevant documents to receive compensation for land (owned by Savar) to be used for the Mumbai-Vadodara Highway. The biometric details as well as photographs of Mukne were used to make the relevant documents.