According to sources, the gangs having links with Santok Jadeja alias ‘Godmother’ from Porbandar and Ranas from Gondal have been associated with the deals made for construction of buildings likely to come up on prime locations in Rajkot.

In a fortnight, six cases related to land dispute or land grabbing have come to the fore. One of them involves 168 acres of land in Raiya and another is in Haripar Pal on Kalawad Road. Each of these two land plots could be worth over Rs 10-20 crore. The ownership claims made by mafias over these plots have upset police and legal circles.

In these cases, mafia’s role is seen as muscle power used to prove claim on properties sold years ago. The prices of these plots have skyrocketed following boom in the real estate in the past couple of years.

Taking cognisance of a public notice issued by Ebha Arjan Jadeja, nephew of Santok, claiming ownership on Survey number 250 in Raiya, the Commissioner of Police Sudhir Sinha has ordered a probe into the matter.

“When a known mafia don Ebha Arjan Jadeja claims ownership on 168 acres of land in Survey number 250 in Raiya, it indicates that Porbandar mafias are taking interest in disputed land deals in Rajkot city,” said Sinha.

He said, “A land plot belonging to one Parl Darbar was taken over by the government under Urban Land Ceiling Act. The inquiry revealed that despite it being a government land, Darbar sold it to Kanti Kapachi, a wellknown land dealer from Vadodara."

At present, there are four contenders for this land, worth over Rs 20 crore — the government, Jadeja, Kanti Kapachi and Darbar. The fact that the previous records do confirm involvement of two private parties — Darbar and Kapachi — in the deal, what has surprised the police is a public notice issued by Jadeja calling for cognisance.

The Jadejas, who created havoc in Porbandar in the last decade, have been accused in several extortion cases. And, the new incident seems to be a sophisticated mode of extortion adopted by them.

In a similar case, involving a private land at Haripal Pal, the involvement of people like Jaypal Jadeja, the right hand man to Dilipsinh Rana, again indicates that muscle power through the gangs operating in Gondal has been employed to forcefully throw out Dayabhai Patel, one of the land owners.

Jaypal Jadeja and Rana have also been accused in murder cases of BJP youth Rajkot district president Vinu Singala and his associate Nilesh Rayani following dispute over Rajwadi, the royal property of the erstwhile Gondal State.

Fifteen days ago, Kishore Kotecha, the son of Dayabhai Kotecha, and his supporters were attacked by Jaypal Jadeja and his supporters when they went to survey the land.