A 37-year-old man in Gujarat has been arrested for running a fake court and pretending to be a judge for five years. The man, Morris Samuel Christian, had set up the fake court in Gandhinagar in 2019. He used it to trick people who were involved in land disputes, promising them quick solutions in exchange for large fees, according to the police. Christian even had associates pretending to be court staff to make the operation seem real.
Police revealed that Christian claimed to be an arbitrator, giving fake legal rulings and conducting entire arbitration proceedings in his fake courtroom. Photos showed Christian sitting like a judge, surrounded by props that gave the impression of a real court. He made it look convincing by having staff and advocates present while he acted as a judge. According to reports, he would file cases, pass orders, and attempt to transfer ownership of land worth crores of rupees to his clients.
The scheme was exposed when one of Christian’s clients, Babjuji Thakor, filed a case at the city civil court in Ahmedabad. Thakor claimed ownership of a piece of government land in the Paldi area, using a certificate issued by Christian’s fake court under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. When the court inspected the document, they found that Christian was not a judge and was operating a fake court. The court then alerted the police.
An FIR was filed under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to pretending to be a public servant and cheating by impersonation. Christian was arrested, and the police revealed that he has been involved in another cheating case filed in 2015. Investigations into his latest fraud are ongoing.
