PANAJI
Investigation into the land grab scam led to another arrest on Monday and with this, the State has registered the first case in South Goa.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) (Land Grab) arrested a Navelim resident, Mahadev Chavan for an offense registered with the Fatorda police station in 2021. He too, like the other accused, is charged with forging documents to sell the properties at a whopping amount.
“The crime was registered upon the complaint by Mamlatdar of Salcete Prataprao P Gaunkar alleging that from January 2018 to May 2020, accused persons created forged title documents of 10 different properties and used it as genuine to get their name included in Form I & XIV. The mutation files of these properties are missing,” SIT SP Nidhin Valsan said.
The SIT zeroed in on Chavan for allegedly forging the title documents of a property in Survey No. 191/4 in Dramapur Village; hence cheated the legal heirs of the occupants.
“During the investigation, the certified copy of the deed of sale that was relied upon by the accused was obtained from the office of Sub Registrar in Salcete. Our team found that the deed is registered in some other person’s name and mentioned details of another survey number located in Cuncolim village. He was soon arrested,” Valsan said. The case was recently transferred to SIT from the local police.
The SIT has so far registered 45 FIRs and arrested 24 persons including government employees.
Meanwhile, the one-man commission by former Bombay High Court judge, Justice V K Jadhav commenced an inquiry into the cases. The representing officer of the SIT submitted 27 case files with another 17 to be submitted within a week. The next hearing is slated on January 31.
