PANJIM: Two officials of the Enforcement Directorate, Goa, were named in the British Parliament House on Tuesday for harassment of British nationals and extorting money.
Tim Loughton, Conservative MP representing East Worthing and Shoreham, brought up the matter in a discussion at Westminster Hall in the British Parliament naming ED official (Girish) Lotlikar and another official Ajit Kumar for harassing the parents of his constituents and demanding money. Loughton said that the parents of his constituents were running a guesthouse in Canacona. He said that in 2009 they were summoned to give assurances on money laundering and in 2011 again by the Enforcement Directorate claiming they had illegally purchased agricultural land and their business was illegitimate.
He said the charge was bogus as the couple had documents to prove that the land was in the settlement zone. This harassment caused British nationals lengthy and costly court action.
He said that on Tuesday he received an email from the British nationals working group in Goa stating that four confiscation orders had been served in Goa. He said there were an “excess of 300 such cases” causing “huge stress to people who have legitimately gone out and invested in businesses”.
He said this is “a nice little earner for the government in Goa and certain various government officials who are pretty brazen in the way they demand money to make the problem which is of their making supposedly go away. It seems to be a Goan equivalent of the mafia.”
He said he had written to various Goan and Indian officials including former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the issue.
Responding to the question raised by Loughton, a British minister said that unscrupulous lawyers and property dealers in Goa take advantage of the ambiguity in the law and that 400 foreigners are being investigated on grounds of violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. He said there are 750 British property owners in Goa and many of them are unable to register ownership of their properties.
He said the British government cannot get involved in private disputes and that in the cases under the scanner it is the Indian government that should regulate.
Loughton intervened to ask whether the British government could not be doing more. “We are talking of British citizens denied justice,” said Loughton.
According to information available with Herald, officials of Western Region, Enforcement Directorate, assistant director of ED, Goa, Girish Lotlikar and British expats including members of informal British working group, connected to the confiscation of the properties, held a crucial meeting on the subject on December 26, 2014.
The prime concern was about ouster and closure notices issued by the ED claiming in many cases these properties are illegal or the reason these were not converted. Sources said there have been several hotels and other commercial establishments, which were earlier run by Indian owners and subsequently sold to British businesspersons. “This happened when there were no conversions done and then sold to Britishers who peacefully ran them for years. Then suddenly these ED notices popped up,” said one of them.
In large number of cases, British investors have complained that builders have not transferred properties in their names even as huge amounts of money have been paid.
