PANAJI
Alleged land fraudsters Vikrant Shetty and Rajkumar Maithi, who already have numerous FIRs registered against them by Goa Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), are now in the custody of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) for allegedly acquiring immovable properties through fraudulent means.
They were arrested on Friday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 and the Special Court (PMLA) remanded them to ED custody till February 20.
“ED initiated an investigation on the basis of various FIRs registered by Goa Police against Vikrant Shetty, Mohammed Suhail, Rajkumar Maithi and other accused persons involved in the illegal grabbing of immovable properties across the state of Goa. Shetty and Maithi, along with other associates were instrumental in forging the land records and consequently, grabbed these vast extents of land all over Goa,” an ED official said.
In November 2023, the ED team cracked down on all the immovable properties of Shetty, Suhail, and Maithi and several others by provisionally attaching 31 immovable assets valued at Rs 39.24 crore under the PMLA 2002.
ED investigation has revealed that various immovable properties were illegally acquired by the accused persons either in their names or their associates/relatives.
“The accused persons placed forged documents in the land records to support their claim that the immovable properties belonged to their ancestors. Based on these forged documents, they were able to get their names included in the land records,” the official said adding, “Some of these properties were further sold by the accused to buyers from Goa and other states.”
Quite a few accused including those named by the ED and some government servants are facing investigation by the SIT of Goa Police. They were also arrested by the SIT previously but subsequently released on conditional bail.
The SIT, formed in 2022, registered 111 FIRs and charge sheeted four cases so far.
