Five remanded for Rs. 10 million land mortgage fraud case

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda

Five men including a land broker who had allegedly involved in mortgaging a land for which a forged deed had been made to obtain a Rs. 10 million loan from a finance company were further remanded till 2 May by a Colombo Court yesterday.

The land had actually been owned by two brothers.

The complaint had been made by one owner of a two acre land located at Udugama, Veyangoda. In his complaint to the CID, P.A. Wickramasinghe of Veyangoda said he had got to know a deed of the land owned by him and his brother had been mortgaged to a finance company and a loan of Rs. 10 million obtained by several persons.

The complainant told police that he was looking for a buyer to sell the land and had contacted land broker to find a buyer. He told the CID that a copy of the deed the land and the plan were given to the broker by him along with an advance payment of Rs. 25,000. The complainant further complained that after a few days he got to know that the deed of the land had been mortgaged to a finance company and a loan of Rs. 10 million obtained. The complainant further informed police that his and his brother’s signatures had been forged in the spurious deed by the suspects who had pretended to be the owners of the land.

Giving a statement to the CID, the attorneys-at-law and notaries public who had allegedly attested the deed told police that their signatures had also been forged by the suspects.

When the case came before Colombo Fort Magistrate Kanishka Wijeratne, the CID produced in Court the fifth suspect who had allegedly impersonated as an owner of the land.  

Meanwhile, first and second suspects who were allegedly involved in obtaining the loan, were also held in remand custody. The fourth suspect who had allegedly said he was an owner of the land was also held in remand custody. The CID detectives informed Court that they were objecting to release the suspects on bail since investigations into the matter had not been concluded. Accordingly, suspects were further remanded till 2 May.