PANJIM: Goans are facing a fear of identity grabbing after taking the shocks of land grabbing. Rackets facilitating mass identity thefts have been facilitating the grabbing of identities of Goans to get a Portuguese passport has come to light after a woman from Ahmedabad was intercepted and detained with a fake Portuguese passport. This incident has confirmed the fact that there is a large-scale racket of identity-grabbing nexuses helping non-Goans using stolen birth certificates and giving new Goan identities.
Though this has been going on for a long time, the action against these acts has started after the Lisbon Investigators found nexuses of fraud agents giving new identities stolen from birth registrars of Goa. Many Goans have become victims of these identity grabbers. It may be recalled that a migrant woman Renuka Tashildar had legally made the elderly couple from Benaulim her parents and using this has got a driving licence and has registered her marriage and applied for Portuguese Citizenship too. This case in 2016 had exposed the extent of corruption in various government departments that came to light. The non-Goan woman was a tenant in the house of the unsuspecting elderly couple.
According to experts, there are hundreds of such cases that have happened in the past and more such cases are bound to come out. Passports are being sold to people from across India for Rs 5 or 6 lakh by agents.
Adv Aires Rodrigues said, “This has been happening for so long and over the last six months many have been intercepted.”
He said, “It is very unfortunate that people have been travelling with fake and fabricated passports. The concerned authorities should get to the bottom of the rot.”
Adv Radharao Gracias said, “This may be happening in connivance.”
