MUMBAI, April 10 -- The Naigaon police have registered a first information report (FIR) against a warehouse owner for allegedly using forged documents to claim higher compensation from the National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd when his property was acquired for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project in 2019. The accused businessman, Harish Bhanushali, colluded with local revenue officials and misrepresented his two-storey warehouse in Poman Industrial Estate in Vasai East as a three-storey structure, obtaining Rs.3.5 crore as compensation, police officers familiar with the matter said. Unidentified officials from the public works department (PWD) and the revenue department have also been booked for allegedly abetting the fraud, the officers added. According to the police, the alleged fraud came to light following a financial dispute between Bhanushali and his business partner, 70-year-old Padmashi Gajra, and the latter lodged a formal complaint with the police. In his complaint, Gajra said that he and Bhanushali together owned a warehouse named Royal Industrial Hub in Poman Industrial Estate, which fell on the proposed route for the bullet train project. In 2019, acting in collusion with local revenue officials, Bhanushali falsely misrepresented the property as a three-storey building, and submitted forged property tax receipts and other documents to substantiate the claim, based on which he received Rs.3.56 crore as compensation from the government, Gajra alleged. Acting on the complaint, the Naigaon police registered an FIR against Bhanushali and unidentified government officials on Wednesday under sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, said senior inspector Sanjay Hazare. "We are aware that the documents submitted by the accused were forged. The survey number was written by hand which is not acceptable. Such fraud cannot be committed without the collusion of revenue and PWD officials," Hazare said. The accused was absconding, but police were trying to trace him and would arrest him soon, the officer added. The 508-kilometre bullet train project is slated to pass through 21 villages in the Vasai taluka and 14 villages within the jurisdiction of the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation. The stretch passing through Vasai spans 26.5 kilometres....