ASMITA POLJI
asmita@herald-goa.com
ASSAGAO: Is it possible that if a husband has bought a property in 1934 and his wife is unaware of it and goes and purchases the same property in 1951?
Strange but this has happened at Badem, Assagao where one of the biggest land grabbings has been reported.
An area admeasuring 18,500 square metres in survey number 78/2 is found to have been sold twice by the landowner – first to the husband in 1934 and later to his wife in 1951.
This is one of the first cases which actually awakened the villagers of Badem and made them check if their properties still belong to them or not.
Incidentally, many of the people whose names are in Form I and IV of the grabbed properties have been booked in another scam
These 18,500 square metres of land located at Badem was bought by Domingos De Sousa, grandfather of Vincent De Souza, a businessman settled in Delhi, who is a co-owner of the property and now has been trying all sorts to get back the property from filing police complaint to deploying security in the property.
Double Fake: Same property bought twice from a man who knew nothing about either sale
Yes. Believe it or not.
1934 a fake deed was inserted in the Archives Department where the father of one Branca Cassiana Diniz alias Branca Rodrigues supposedly “bought” the property Domingos De Sousa
IN 1951 another deed, the same property was supposedly bought by the mother of Branca Rodrigues again from Domingos De Sousa
As per the complainant, this particular land was bought by Vincent’s grandfather Domingos De Sousa prior to 1910 from the ‘Aframet’ but to his utter shock, the culprits managed to change the title even when the property matter was subjudice within the family.
Later using virtue of the Succession Deed made at Canacona, the property was transferred in four names that are presently reflected on Form I & XIV. The names are Branco Rodrigues, Royson Rodrigues, Mariano Antonio Teles Gonsalves and Paulina Juliana Diniz having mutation number 79705.
Meanwhile, at present, this 18,500 square metres of land has been encroached and is having two temporary sheds with bouncers, while the original owners have been threatened not to move out and even look at the property. The access to the property is also closed. In this regard, the owner has filed a complaint at the Anjuna police station, however, the police failed to act.
Apart from this, the accused persons tried to mutate another land of 3500 square metres having a house. Now the owner has filed objections and has deployed security men to protect the property and house from getting encroached.
Co-owner Vincent De Souza said, “I came to know about this in February 2022 when we found that someone has claimed the ownership of the property. It was a shock because for past several years the matter was in the court for settlement inventory and how title of a subpubic property can be changed by some other means?”, he asked
De Souza further said, “It’s a great start by SIT. I hope when they get deeper investigating into this nexus, a lot of rotten apples will be unearthed and justice is meted out to victims thereby making Goa once again a paradise State of India.”
“Herald has done a magnificent journalism job of uncovering this devious plot against the Goans. Kudos to Team Herald for sincerely working to get to the root of the matter and fearlessly doing the needful to highlight the plight of the Goan people. These honest Herald newspaper reports have re-established my faith in journalism in India”, De Souza said.
