PANJIM: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached as many as 31 immovable properties located in the State worth Rs 39.24 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in the money laundering investigation against various persons involved in the illegal acquisition of properties.
With this, the Directorate of Enforcement has so far provisionally attached a total 39 immovable properties totally valued at Rs 51.06 crore.
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Earlier this month, the ED had provisionally attached eight immovable properties worth Rs 11.82 crore in possession of Estevan D’Souza, Moses Fernandes and Samir Korgaonkar.
The action was taken in connection with a money laundering investigation conducted under PMLA, 2002 related to illegal grabbing of land in the State.
The Directorate of Enforcement initiated 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, last year. Subsequently, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Goa Police was also constituted by the State government to investigate the matter.
The Directorate of Enforcement investigation revealed that various immovable properties were illegally acquired by the accused persons in their names or in the names of their associates or relatives. The accused persons placed forged documents in the land records for supporting their claim that the immovable properties belonged to their ancestors. Based on these forged documents they were able to get their names updated or inserted in the land records by making succession deeds or inventories. Few of these illegally acquired properties were sold by the accused to buyers from Goa and other States.
