Ahmedabad: After exposing fake offices and government officials, the Ahmedabad police have now busted a bogus arbitration court in the state capital. Maurice Samuel Christian was arrested for allegedly posing as an arbitrator and issuing false rulings in favor of clients in land-related cases, the police announced on Monday. It has come to light that he had been running the fraudulent court for over five and a half years.

An FIR was lodged at the Karanj police station in Ahmedabad following a complaint from Hardik Sagar Desai, Registrar of the City Civil Court in Bhadra, Ahmedabad. The FIR alleges that Christian was involved in a criminal conspiracy. He has been charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 170 (impersonating a public servant) and 419 (cheating by personation).

A preliminary investigation revealed that Christian targeted individuals with pending land dispute cases in the city civil court. He would charge his clients a specific fee, promising to resolve their cases. Posing as an official arbitrator appointed by the court, Christian would summon his clients to his Gandhinagar office, which was designed to resemble a courtroom, and issue favorable orders as if he were the presiding officer of a legitimate tribunal. This fraudulent scheme had been ongoing since 2019.

In 2019, Christian, without any legal authority or court order under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, staged a sham proceeding and issued an order directing the district collector to include his client’s name in the revenue records for the land. Later, to enforce this fraudulent order, Christian, through another lawyer, filed an appeal in the city civil court, attaching the bogus order he had issued. However, the court’s registrar, Hardik Desai, recently discovered that Christian was not an arbitrator and that the tribunal’s order was fake, bringing his scheme to light

Moreover, it has it has been revealed that Christian does not hold a valid license to practice law. A representative from the Bar Council of Gujarat (BCG) confirmed on Tuesday that action had been initiated against Christian for practicing law in courts without proper credentials. Anil Kella, chairman of BCG’s finance committee, stated that in 2007, BCG lodged a complaint against Christian for falsely claiming to be a lawyer. Christian had asserted that he possessed a degree from an international law university and a license from the International Bar Council, which he used to forge certificates and practice in different courts. Upon investigation, BCG found that neither the university nor the bar council Christian mentioned actually existed. Kella also revealed that Christian had been arrested by the city crime branch following BCG’s complaint and spent more than three months in jail.

During the investigation, police found nine passports under different names in his possession, and he was implicated in a fake visa case in Mumbai. A case related to this is still pending in the district court. DeshGujarat