The much-awaited report into the multi-crore land grab cases has been submitted to the State government by Justice V K Jadhav (retd), heading the one-man commission investigating the matter. Although the fine print of the report is not out yet, it has come to light that Justice Jadhav has named masterminds and their co-accused and has broadly recommended measures to prevent such scams in the future.
While spelling out the next course of action, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that inquiries would be initiated against all those accused and added that government employees, if involved, would be suspended. More importantly, the CM claimed that this was a "great achievement" in itself that the government has intervened and acted against land grabbers that could have grown bigger, consuming larger parcels of land.
Due credit must be given to Justice Jadhav for completing this complex probe within ten months, a job which looked monumental at one point in time considering the complexities involved. Also, there is no denying that the government must be credited for showing no biases since there were several government employees and influential persons among the list of accused. The question, however, is overtaking this exercise to its logical conclusion and restoring land to its original status or handing over land to rightful owners.
We reiterate here that land issues are very complex. Since they relate to most documents and papers dating back to colonial times, tracking the forgeries and proving them in a court of law will be challenging. At this point, the report cannot be seen as an achievement by itself. If water-tight chargesheets and cases do not back it up to nail the accused, the land grab saga could see an anti-climax, and the efforts of the teams engaged in the groundwork would go futile.
Lest we forget, the trail of land grab cases projects a grim picture since the State has failed to make a strong case against any of those arrested. FIRs were registered, arrests were made, but the accused managed to get bail in quick time, and multiple times. Accusing masterminds and others is fine, but the crime has to be proved before the court.
The seriousness that the CM showed while addressing the media is not reflected in the handling of cases so far. The failure of the past is returning to haunt and raises a strong suspicion on the way forward.
Land grab cases made headlines in Goa in recent times, with real estate agents in collusion with authorities forging documents, manipulating data and managing to change the titles and rights of properties. There are over 100 land grab cases registered by the police till now, each having a script of its own.
The State government's initiative to take the probe forward and install a one-man probe panel is welcome, but the mission is not accomplished yet. For now, the only consolation is that a deterrent has been set. The probe report could be a roadmap to navigate the State machinery through a terrain muddied with twists, turns and political inferences. Amid uncertainties of the probe into cases of land grab, Justice Jadhav has given new hopes.
