MUMBAI, April 7 -- The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mira-Bhayander-Vasai-Virar (MBVV) police on Sunday arrested the alleged mastermind behind a Rs.22.31-crore land acquisition fraud in connection with the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail, more popularly known as the bullet train project. The fraud, perpetrated on an illiterate woman, was exposed by HT in a March 30 article titled 'Living in the dark shadow of the bullet train'. Police officers said that the accused, identified as Umesh Harihar Rana, was apprehended in Hyderabad after days of intensive search. Rana and seven of his accomplices-Sanjay Joshi, Aslam Sarojiya, Venu Gopal, Kiran Joshi, Kushtha Pai and two others-are accused of orchestrating the scam to dupe the woman, Maya Chavan, and her family members, of their rightful land acquisition compensation of Rs.22.31 crore. Rana and his associates were booked for criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy after Chavan approached the police. "The manner in which they executed this fraud-by procuring fake SIM cards and employing various deceptive tactics-suggests that this was a high-tech criminal enterprise," said a police officer. Officers said that after the FIR was registered, Rana went into hiding, constantly changing his location in an attempt to evade arrest. However, an EOW team successfully traced and nabbed him in Hyderabad. "Our priority now is to track the money trail and recover the defrauded amount," said the officer. "We will first investigate how the money was spent." The scam unfolded after Rana and his associates met Maya Chavan in 2018 and informed her that the bullet train was slated to pass through her land, and that while several of her family members' names appeared on the land records (7/12 extract), her name was missing. Chavan said that her grandmother, Sitabai Krishna Madhavi, a freedom fighter, was allotted the land parcel of 114 gunthas at More village in Virar and her name was recorded in the revenue records. The land passed on to her mother, and over the years the names of various family members were mutated in the revenue records. Chavan's name, however, remained excluded, a fact that Rana and his associates took advantage of. The men assured her that they would get her name duly entered, but to facilitate this process, she would have to give thumb impressions and sign certain documents. The very next day, they persuaded her and her family members to give Rana power of attorney (PoA) to make the work simpler, and got a notarised irrevocable PoA executed in their favour. In an elaborate charade, Rana first filed an appeal with the sub-divisional officer of Vasai to get the land re-registered in the names of Chavan and her family members, and in 2019, the name of the government was taken out and the Chavan family members' names were added to the 7/12 extract. Rana then took Chavan's Aadhar card and other identity documents and persuaded her to open a new bank account for receiving the compensation money. However, instead of linking the complainant's mobile number with the bank account, he linked a number that was obtained in Maya's name but was with him. Claiming that signed cheques needed to be submitted to the railway department to facilitate the imminent deposit of funds, the criminal gang took her signatures on blank cheques and also took away her ATM card. Towards the end of January 2020, Chavan learnt that many individuals had received compensation for their lands acquired for the bullet train project. She and her husband then visited the sub-divisional office, where they were told that an amount of Rs.20,95,24,715 had been deposited into her account. "We immediately went to my bank, where we learnt that the amount had been credited to my account on January 10, 2020. However, from January 13 onwards, all the money had been withdrawn or transferred, and a total of Rs.20,88,50,000 was transferred to Rana's bank account," said Chavan. An agitated Chavan and her husband met Rana and the others at their office in Don Galli in Nalasopara. The men brazenly told them that they had worked very hard to get the money for her, and she would get her share soon but not if she filed a complaint. Maya nevertheless submitted a formal police complaint against Rana. "Once we did that, the accused promised to pay my money very soon and induced me to withdraw the complaint application," said Maya. "But they gave us just Rs.25 lakh through cheques. When my husband demanded the rest, Rana and his gang got the police to register an FIR against him and other relatives at Vasai police station for extortion and threats." Maya added that the Vasai police also arrested her husband, who had to spend 30 days in jail and got bail only when she promised to take back her complaint. With the help of social activists, Chavan approached the Pelhar police, who registered the FIR and handed the case over to the EOW. Rana was arrested on April 5 and the search for the other accused is on....