A Nampally court on Tuesday remanded a 61-year-old businessman to 14-day judicial custody, a day after Chaderghat police arrested him for allegedly running a land-grabbing and extortion racket in the city.

The accused, Mohammed Abdul Quddus, was picked up by the city police from his son’s residence in Bengaluru’s Ganganagar, following a search operation launched by a special police team after receiving information that he had fled the city.

The issue came to light when Mohammed Najamuddin Shakir, a businessman from Hyderabad, registered a complaint with the police alleging that Quddus falsely claimed ownership of a portion of his family’s ancestral property in Malakpet using fabricated documents and forged stamp papers.

According to police, the complainant’s family had been in lawful possession of the property for decades through registered sale deeds, gift settlements and a will. Trouble began after the family obtained permission from GHMC and started construction on the land in 2025.

Investigators alleged that Quddus used forged Hibanama document, which is a formal legal document under Muslim personal law used to record the voluntary and unconditional transfer of a property as a gift, to stake a claim over the property and subsequently initiated legal proceedings in an attempt to create confusion over ownership. The police said the accused and his associates allegedly demanded ₹10 lakh from the complainant and threatened to implicate him in false criminal cases if the money was not paid.

The police said Quddus was a habitual offender who targeted properties advertised for sale or newly constructed buildings. His modus operandi involved creating forged ownership documents, filing civil suits and using the threat of prolonged litigation and criminal cases to extort money from property owners.

Investigators suspect that the accused may have extorted nearly ₹40 lakh from multiple victims through similar methods over the years.

Police records show that Quddus has been named in several criminal cases registered by Hyderabad police since 2014, including cases involving cheating, forgery, extortion, criminal intimidation and conspiracy.

Further investigation is under way to identify additional victims and examine other property-related disputes allegedly linked to the accused.