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

Two months after midday exposed con artist Clarence Pereirarsquos alleged plan to usurp an elderly manrsquos twobedroom Andheri flat using forged documents the police booked him in a fresh case related to cheating forgery and house trespass on December 9The complainant Bharat Patel 65 told this newspaper that the Andheri police had not made Pereirarsquos son Raphel and daughter Rachel coaccused Pereira is yet to be arrestedldquoThis FIR was published only because midday highlighted my ordeal two months ago after which Andheri police were forced to scan Pereirarsquos forged documents about which I had been telling them for months I am thankful to the entire midday team for raising the voice of a common manrdquo said the complainant who is the legal custodian of a twobedroom flat at a housing society in Andheri EastldquoImmediately 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 fearlesslyrdquo he addedHealth woesldquoI 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 twobedroom flat despite the registration of an FIR When will this flat be back in my possessionrdquo asked the complainantPatel 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 flatBut 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 flatDelay tacticsldquoThe Pereira family had deliberately adopted delay tactics so that Clarence could make forged documents to usurp my propertyrdquo said Patel who owns a garment shop in Colaba marketldquoThis 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 courtrdquo said Patel who had also registered an NC against Raphel on October 11 at the Andheri police stationldquoBut Raphel has not been made coaccused in the FIR Also Rachel had fought with my daughterinlaw 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 delayrdquo he addedHis son Vipin Patel said ldquoAfter the midday 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 fakerdquoNefarious activitiesA senior police officer said ldquoWe have made a watertight 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 coaccused Clarence Pereira will soon be arrestedrdquomidday 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 multicrore bungalow of an elderly woman at Chuim village and physically assaulting her mentally unstable daughter