Ahmedabad: Fake court busted inside real court, had ‘settled’ land dispute

The accused posed as a court-appointed official arbitrator and passed an order in a land dispute case in 2019. His fraud came to light when the same case came for hearing in the Ahmedbad City Court.

In Short

• Accused passed an order in favour of his client in a land dispute case of 2019
• He used to trap people whose cases of land disputes were pending before court
• Arrested after complaint by Ahmedabad City Civil Court official

A man has been arrested in Ahmedabad for allegedly setting up a tribunal, posing as a court-appointed official arbitrator and settling cases.

According to the police, the accused, identified as Morris Samuel Christian, posed as a court-appointed official arbitrator and passed an order in a land dispute case in 2019, hinting that the fake tribunal had been working for at least five years.

The fraud was discovered when the same land dispute case was taken up for hearing in Ahmedabad City Civil Court.

Upon receiving a complaint against Christian by the civil court’s registrar, Hardik Desai, a case was filed against him under sections 170 (pretending to hold any office as a public servant) and 419 (cheating by personation), among others.

An initial police probe indicated that Christian used to trap people whose cases of land disputes were pending before the city civil court. He used to take a specific amount from his clients as fees for solving their cases.

Christian would first establish himself as a court-appointed official arbitrator, call his clients at his Gandhinagar-based office which was designed to look like a court, and pass a favourable order as the presiding officer of the tribunal, according to the police.

His accomplices would stand as court staff or lawyers to create an impression that proceedings were genuine, the police probe highlighted.

The Ahmedabad Police arrested Christian for allegedly cheating people by posing as a judge of an arbitral tribunal and passing favourable orders claiming he had been appointed as an arbitrator by a competent court to adjudicate legal disputes.