Considering the scale of land scams, the Gujarat Home department has decided to transfer all cases involving the Swaminarayan Sansthan’s name to the CID Crime.

Scammers involved in crimes under the guise of Swaminarayan temples and cow shelters are active in Ahmedabad, Anand, Nadiad, Surat, Rajkot, Sabarkantha, and Wadhwan, according to reports.

They allegedly purchase lands for the construction of temples, cow shelters, and other buildings under the name of the Swaminarayan sect. 

They deceive farmers by offering to buy land at high prices, promising to sell it to a Swaminarayan priest at an even higher price, and securing land deals under false pretenses.

Several crimes related to this scam have been reported, prompting the Home department to transfer the investigation from local police to the CID Crime Branch.

Modus operandi

The ‘gang’ targets brokers involved in land trading, showing them valuable land in certain villages or areas.

They claim that the Swaminarayan sect wants to purchase this land for religious institutions and cow shelters. Since Swaminarayan priests cannot directly buy land from farmers, they convince these individuals that they would make a large profit by purchasing the land themselves and selling it to the sect. 

After securing the sale agreements, they even brought along a saint to inspect the land, further solidifying the trust of the buyers, who then paid farmers crores of rupees for the land. 

However, the gang would later claim that the farmers were unwilling to sell the land, thus defrauding the brokers that involved both the farmers and Swaminarayan saints. Many individuals fell victim to this scam, and in some cases, even followers of the Swaminarayan sect were targeted by their own.

As the number of such crimes increased, the decision was made to hand over all cases to the CID Crime Branch for investigation.

Also read:

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