India
80‑Year‑Old Former Ayurvedic Doctor Arrested for Fraudulent Land Deals in Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir police have arrested Somnath Koul, an 80‑year‑old former Ayurvedic doctor from the outskirts of Srinagar, on charges of defrauding land buyers, most of whom were Kashmiri migrant Pandits. Koul allegedly used multiple identities – Mohan Lal Dhar, Brijnath Bhat and Hadinath Dhar – and forged documents to sell land left behind by Pandits who fled during the militancy of the 1990s. He posed as a lawyer or as the property owner, collected money and disappeared. Police began tracking him after a photograph on a fake sale document was noticed in January. A nine‑month manhunt uncovered a trail of fraudulent deals dating back to 2017. In November 2025, a South Kashmir resident reported buying about half an acre in Pulwama and 300 poplar trees in Bijbehara for ₹93 lakh, only to find the land did not belong to the seller named in the agreement. An FIR was filed against Koul in April. The disputed land belonged to a migrant Pandit and Koul had posed as the owner’s attorney. The documents also listed false addresses in Jammu and Bengaluru. Police also arrested Ghulam Mohidin Dar of Budgam in September; he had signed the documents as a witness and was an influential land broker who lured buyers for Koul. Koul’s service records list him as Brijnath Bhat and he holds two voter ID cards and two Aadhaar cards, identifying him as Somnath Koul and Mohan Lal Dhar. Investigators found he had destroyed his fingertips and his iris scans failed. Police compared his evasion tactics to those of the notorious fraudster Charles Sobhraj. Four other cases linked to Koul were found, the earliest in 2017 and others from 2021 to 2026. He is now in Srinagar Central Jail serving judicial custody.