Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested an 80-year-old former Ayurvedic doctor from the outskirts of Srinagar for allegedly duping land buyers, most of them Kashmiri migrant Pandits.
The accused allegedly used multiple identities and forged documents to carry out the fraud. He was arrested after a nine-month manhunt, earning the moniker ‘Charles Sobhraj of Kashmir’ for his apparent ability to evade .
Identified as Somnath Koul, the accused allegedly operated under the names Mohan Lal Dhar, Brijnath Bhat, and Hadinath Dhar.
Police say that Koul fleeced people with promises of selling them land left behind by like himself for over a decade now.
Koul, now 80, would pose as a lawyer facilitating property sales in some cases and as the owner himself in others. He would also play the victim, claiming to be among the thousands of Kashmiri Pandits forced to leave their homes following the onset of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s, according to a report by The Indian Express.
The was simple. Koul would identify the land left behind by the Pandits, strike a deal with prospective buyers with forged documents, collect the money and disappear, the report said, quoting police officials.
Koul came into the police’s eyes for the first time in January when his photograph, affixed to one of the fake sale documents, was noticed. Soon, a hunt was launched and continued for nine months, eventually uncovering a trail of fraudulent land deals dating back to 2017.
In November 2025, a resident of South Kashmir had approached the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the The resident said that he had bought about half an acre of land in Pulwama and 300 poplar trees planted on a parcel of land in Bijbehara after paying ₹93 lakh. The complainant said that when he went to court for ratification of ‘Agreement to Sell’, he was told that the land doesn’t belong to the person shown as seller in the agreement.
An FIR against Koul in April this year. The disputed land belonged to a a migrant and Koul had posed as the owner’s attorney, the Indian Express report said. The two addresses in Jammu and Bengaluru that Koul mentioned in the documents also turned out to be fake.
Police also zeroed on Ghulam Mohidin Dar, a resident of Budgam in central Kashmir who had signed the document as a witness. Dar was eventually nabbed in September. Turned out Dar was an influential land broker who would lure the buyers for Koul. Soon, the police learned of Koul’s multiple identities.
Koul is said to be an Ayurvedic doctor, and his name in his service records is Brijnath Bhat. He owns two Voter Identity cards and two Aadhaar cards each. The two Aadhaar cards identify him as Somnath Koul and Mohan Lal Dhar.
Police found during the investigation that he had even destroyed his fingertips, and his iris scans also failed.
Jammu and Kashmir police likened him to for his ability to evade investigating agencies,
Sobhraj is a French serial killer, fraudster and thief who became notorious for murdering and robbing foreign tourists across South and Southeast Asia during the 1970s. Arrested in New Delhi in 1976 after poisoning French tourists, he was imprisoned in Tihar Jail.
In 1986, he escaped by drugging prison guards and inmates but was recaptured soon afterwards. He was released from a prison in Nepal in December 2022 and deported back to France.
During the investigation, the police found four other cases linked to Koul. The last one of 2017 and registered at the EOW of the Crime Branch. The three other cases were registered in the EOW and Special Crime Wing from 2021 to 2026.
In the first case of 2017, police received a complaint about him as Brijnath Bhat. Koul had allegedly posed as an attorney for a piece of land at Goshabugh in Pattan, Baramulla. A deal was finalised for ₹55 lakh. After the complainant paid ₹9.17 lakh in advance, Koul disappeared.
In 2021, Koul again identified himself as Brijnath Bhat. After allegedly taking ₹47 lakh from the buyer, he disappeared. Koul is now in Srinagar Central Jail serving judicial custody.
