Says ready to share documents to help unearth massive land fraud
MAPUSA
Applauding the recent raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into an alleged illegal land-grabbing racket pegged at over Rs 1,200 crore, the Assagao comunidade on Thursday declared its willingness to fully cooperate with the central agency and share documents to help unearth what it described as a massive land fraud.
Two days ago, the ED carried out simultaneous raids in the State and Hyderabad, targeting the premises of a panchayat member, a businessman and their associates.
The action is linked to allegations of forging property records and usurping comunidade lands across North Goa.
At a press conference held in the comunidade office, Attorney Nelson Fernandes alleged that the accused, including Yeshwant Sawant and a member of the Anjuna panchayat, fraudulently usurped around 1,54,000 sqm of comunidade land in Assagao.
“The modus operandi is the same – tearing pages from the tombu, doctoring old records, forging documents and rewriting entries. All this is being done systematically to grab comunidade land,” Fernandes said.
Comunidade President Ruildo D’Souza added that the managing committee decided to place details of the frauds in the public domain to substantiate the claims and support the investigation.
According to Fernandes, at least four scams linked to the same group have surfaced: A 1 lakh sqm land scam allegedly usurped by the panchayat member; A construction project on 18,600 sqm of comunidade land in Assagao by one of the associates; An attempt to grab 44,000 sqm of land from a declared tenant; A disputed portion of 2,850 sqm out of 50,900 sqm granted to Agnel Charities for its technical college, allegedly being encroached upon by Sawant and an associate.
“Yeshwant Sawant’s name figures in all four scams. The comunidade has already challenged these cases in court, and Agnel Charities too has filed a case against the encroachment,” Fernandes pointed out.
Welcoming the ED’s intervention, he said: “We are very happy with the investigation. Whatever support and documents the ED requires, we are ready to provide. Our aim is to save comunidade properties at any cost.”
The ED’s recent raids in Goa and Hyderabad have now added momentum to efforts at exposing the larger land-grabbing racket, with the Assagao comunidade becoming one of the first to publicly align itself with the probe.
