PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa has directed the Tourism Department to hold a personal hearing for the owner of a shack in Arambol, who is facing a demolition order for allegedly subletting the premises and its involvement in a murder case.
On January 29, the Tourism Department imposed a penalty of Rs 25 lakh on shack owner Manuel Fernandes and forfeited his security deposit for allegedly subletting his establishment, Sea Lounge Beach Shack. The shack was the site of a brutal assault on local businessman Amar Bandekar on January 26, who later succumbed to his injuries.
As per the department’s order, Fernandes has been permanently blacklisted, and his shack license has been revoked. The department also directed the demolition of the shack within seven days, prompting the owner to seek relief from the High Court.
During the hearing of the plea filed by the shack owner on Monday, the High Court directed that a show cause notice be issued and instructed that the matter be decided within 15 days. In the meantime, operations at the shack will remain suspended.
“The department will pass an order based on the hearing of the parties. The shack owner is entitled to file a reply to the director, and a decision will be taken after hearing both sides,” Advocate General Devidas Pangam said.
The State informed the High Court that the shack had been sublet to a person whose local residential address, as declared in the tenancy form, was left blank. Furthermore, according to evidence gathered during the ongoing investigation, financial transactions related to the shack were not conducted in the name of the person to whom the shack was originally allotted. “Subletting has come to the fore,” the AG added.
The police-tourism department’s inquiry revealed that Fernandes had sublet the shack to Lalchand Chauhan, a non-Goan from Kullu, Himachal Pradesh. Incidentally, among the three persons arrested for Bandekar’s murder, two were natives of Himachal Pradesh (Surender Kumar and Vibhishan Kumar) while the third (Lalit Thakur) was from Nepal.
