PANAJI
The North Goa Sessions Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register a First Information Report into allegations of massive land fraud amounting to Rs 300 crores into government property allotted to the Economic Development Corporation (EDC).
The direction came after the Court was ordered by the High Court of Bombay at Goa to reconsider an earlier application seeking criminal investigation, which had been dismissed in 2020. The High Court, in its order dated October 15, 2024, had quashed the 2020 dismissal by the Sessions Court and directed it to hear the matter afresh.
The petitioners comprising citizen activists had approached the High Court through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) alleging corruption, nepotism, cheating and collusion between EDC, private developers, the Oriental Bank of Commerce (now merged with PNB), RBI, Income Tax Department and other government agencies.
The complaint claimed that government-owned land handed over to EDC was illegally leased and sold without proper permissions, causing the exchequer loss of over Rs 300 crore.
After the hearing, the Sessions Court observed that the government is admittedly the owner of the land in question and EDC has the land or otherwise well and sufficiently entitled to the land and premises registered in the Land Revenue Office. Various buildings came up and were leased to government and semi-government offices like BSNL, GST, Income Tax, Goa Government Shram Shakti Bhavan, State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda who constructed their buildings but have not leased or sold the units as per the lease agreement with EDC.
Further, the Court accepted the petitioners’ submission alleging that properties originally owned by the government were sold back to house departments such as the Town and Country Planning (TCP), Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), and Urban Development, at inflated “land cost” instead of actual unit cost.
“The politicians, ministers and highest law officers are involved in this activity. Some Advocates have also taken premises in the building constructed in the said locality. The buildings which have come up are illegal and could not have been erected or constructed in the said property,” the petitioners had alleged.
Citing the settled legal position that FIRs must be registered without delay unless exceptional circumstances, the Sessions Court slammed the delay in initiating an inquiry.
“There is nothing exceptional in the present case that warrants the delay in registration of an FIR on the ground of preliminary inquiry. Even if there were exceptional circumstances, any preliminary inquiry could not have under any circumstances exceeded two days,” Judge Irshad Agha said.
“In the present case FIR ought to have been registered by the investigating agency. In any case preliminary inquiry ought to have been carried out. However, in the present case there is enough material to directly register the FIR,” the order further stated directing an FIR within 24 hours.
