Ahmedabad: A man has been arrested in Ahmedabad for allegedly running a fake tribunal, posing as a court-appointed arbitrator, and illegally settling cases.

The accused, identified as Morris Samuel Christian, is said to have passed an order in a land dispute case in 2019 while pretending to be an official arbitrator. This suggests that the fraudulent tribunal had been operating for at least five years, according to the police.

The scam came to light when the same land dispute was brought before the Ahmedabad City Civil Court. Upon a complaint filed by the court registrar, Hardik Desai, a case was registered against Christian under sections 170 (impersonating a public servant) and 419 (cheating by impersonation), among other charges.

The initial police investigation revealed that Christian targeted individuals with pending land dispute cases in the civil court. He would charge them fees, claiming to be an arbitrator appointed by the court to resolve their disputes.

Christian allegedly operated out of a Gandhinagar-based office designed to resemble a court. He would call his clients there and issue favorable orders, acting as the presiding officer of a bogus tribunal. His accomplices posed as court staff or lawyers to make the proceedings appear authentic.

Christian has been arrested for allegedly defrauding people by posing as a judge of a tribunal and falsely claiming to be appointed by a court to resolve legal cases.