PANAJI
The Anti-Corruption Branch of the Directorate of Vigilance on Tuesday registered an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act against two former office bearers of the Reis Magos panchayat, former sarpanch Prasanna Nagvekar and former panchayat secretary Subodh Prabhu.
The investigation was carried out by the ACB on the basis of a complaint received from the Block Development Officer (Bardez I and II), Mapusa. The FIR has been registered based on this investigation.
According to ACB investigation, in the month of April 2017, Nagvekar and Prabhu allegedly “abused their position as public servants and illegally facilitated allotment of five house numbers to non-existing structures in the property” located in the village of Reis Magos.
The case gained attention when Goa Lokayukta Justice (retd) P K Misra ordered a criminal prosecution against the duo for abuse and misuse of power in aiding the landowner to secure house tax for showing and authenticating five inexistent ‘houses’ as 100 year-old structures. The entire charade was undertaken in order to evade the Coastal Regulation Zone rules, which would have otherwise applied to the property.
