Land in Goa is scarce and precious and this has led to a number of fraudsters who have taken advantage of legal loopholes in the bureaucratic system to try and cheat rightful owners of their land
The property may be in your name, but is it really safe from fraudsters? A land scam involving loopholes in the bureaucratic system could well strip you of your rightful property.
Believe it or not, nearly 45,000 sq mtrs of prime land in Porvorim estimated at Rs 50-60 crore nearly fell into the wrong hands, had it not been for the timely intervention of the rightful heirs.
The siblings of one Furtado family, now in their eighties, had inherited a huge property measuring about 45,500 square metres, at a prime location in Porvorim. Incidentally, most of the siblings reside near the property.
“A man in his thirties craftily got his name included in Form 1&XIV of the survey pertaining to our family property. The fraudster then submitted an application before the Mapusa mamlatdar’s office in October 2012 for mutation in respect of the property,” said one sibling, Caetano Xavier Ivo Remedios Furtado, while narrating their family’s struggle to reclaim their rightful property.
According to Furtado, the modus operandi employed by the fraudster was to take a sale deed wherein some of his relatives had purchased a property for Rs 300 only and he submitted an application to the mamlatdar’s office to include his name alongside the siblings of the Furtado family.
“Surprisingly, the joint mamlatdar passed an order in November 2012 to include the man’s name in our property, even though there was no document to show that the previous owners, whose names were mentioned in Form 1&XIV, had transferred the property to the man or his ancestors,” Furtado said.
“Soon after clandestinely getting the property transferred into his name, the man went ahead and sold 600 sq mtrs of the 45,500 sq mtrs for Rs 12 lakh to a resident of Moira.”
“He (fraudster) had tried selling various portions of the said property to unsuspecting buyers. When we came to know that the man had got his name included in the Form 1&XIV, the wife of one of my brothers filed an appeal in the office of the Bardez Mamlatdar.”
“Incidentally, the same joint mamlatdar, who had earlier passed an order to include the man’s name in our property, later set aside the mutation and his name was deleted and an order passed in June,” Furtado added.
When asked to comment in the matter, Bardez Deputy Collector Sabaji Shetye said, “The joint mamlatdar had passed the order and the party (Furtado family) had raised an objection. The joint mamlatdar later revoked his own order. The man has appealed against the order and the appeal is pending.”
Asked how the joint mamlatdar could have executed the mutation without verifying the documents, the deputy collector replied, “I am not aware of the facts, as the case is still pending before me. It is not in my power as a judicial officer to say anything in the matter. I have not gone through the documents and I don’t know what the parties have to say, as I have not heard the parties so far,” Shetye said.
When asked if a mamlatdar is expected to verify documents during mutation cases, Shetye admitted that “it is normally verified.”
Not much is known if the joint mamlatdar was penalized for executing a mutation without verifying the documents, as the deputy collector did not comment further in the mat
