Thane Man Shot at by Relative in Property Dispute

A 27-year-old man was critically injured when a relative allegedly opened fire at him following a property dispute in Thane district, Maharashtra, police reported on Wednesday. The incident took place on Tuesday evening at Lonad village in the Bhiwandi area.

The victim, identified as Vicky Dalvi, was heading to a hospital on his motorbike when his relative, along with two other individuals, waylaid him and fired at him from a revolver at point-blank range before fleeing the scene, a police official said. Dalvi suffered serious injuries and was undergoing treatment in a hospital.

The incident was the result of an ongoing land dispute between the two families, the official added. The Padgha police registered an FIR against the three accused under sections 109(1) (attempt to murder) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and provisions of the Arms Act. Efforts were on to trace the accused, the police said.

Property disputes are a common source of conflict in many parts of India, often leading to violent incidents. In Thane, such disputes can be particularly contentious due to the rapid urbanization and increasing value of land. Local authorities are working to address these issues and prevent further violence, but the challenges remain significant.

In a related incident, a 60-year-old businessman from south Mumbai was kept under 'digital arrest' overnight by cyber fraudsters who posed as senior officials from law enforcement agencies and allegedly duped him of Rs 53 lakh. The fraudsters accused the businessman of involvement in a money laundering case and forced him to remain on a video call for the whole night, saying he had an online bail hearing in a court the next day, and also issued him a fake notice from the Supreme Court.

'Digital arrest' is a growing form of cybercrime, in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement officials or personnel of government agencies and intimidate victims through audio/video calls. They hold the victims hostage and put pressure on them to pay money. According to the police, the victim, a resident of Agripada, received a call from an unknown number on November 2, and the caller, who identified himself as Rajiv Sinha, an officer of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), asked him to appear before the Delhi police in two hours, as a SIM card in his name was used in fraudulent activities.

When the victim showed his inability to reach Delhi, the caller told him about an offence registered against him in Delhi, and that the police would phone him. The businessman received a video call from a man who identified himself as Vijay Khanna, an official from the Delhi police. He told the victim that his name had cropped up in a money laundering case and his Aadhaar card was used to open a bank account at a nationalised bank in Dariyagunj, Delhi.

The call continued overnight as the victim was grilled about his movable and immovable assets and savings. The fraudsters informed the victim that he was under arrest and had to remain in his room till his online bail hearing the next day. During the 'online hearing', the court denied him bail and ordered that all his bank accounts be frozen and money to be transferred to nationalised banks.

One of the fraudsters sent the victim a fake notice in the name of the Supreme Court, and details of a bank account into which the victim was forced to deposit Rs 53 lakh. When the caller demanded more money after some time, the victim realised that he had been cheated, and he managed to get out of the room on the pretext of going to the toilet and called the police helpline 1930 to alert them about the digital arrest. He lodged a complaint at the Central Region Cyber police station, following which a case was registered, and a probe is underway.