Team Herald
PANJIM: After seven years of investigation, the Goa Crime Branch (CB) filed a charge sheet BJP MLA Michael Lobo indicting him and three others of forging a coastal regulation zone (CRZ) no objection certificate (NOC) for a hotel project in Calangute in 2006.
The charge sheet, a copy of which is in possession of Herald, charges Lobo and business partner Francis alias Franky Viegas of destroying the original forged letter that speaks about giving a clean chit to the project ‘as it is situated beyond 500 mtrs of the high tide line’.
“Both (Lobo and Viegas), during the interrogation denied possessing the original forged documents. They did not disclose anything. It means that they have disposed/destroyed the letter with intention to destroy the evidence,” reads an extract of the charge sheet filed before the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Mapusa.
The charge sheet further says, “…fraudulently and dishonestly produced the notarised forged document along with other documents with village panchayat of Calangute and Town & Country Planning as genuine to obtain construction licence, amalgamation, extension of construction licence and NOCs for construction on plots…”
What’s interesting is that the forged letter was typed on the official computer belonging to the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), prompting an FIR against the concerned officials.
The computer hard disk was recovered during the course of investigation. A forensic test of the evidence established the letter, issued by the Member Secretary of GCZMA on May 17, 2006 in the name of British national Gurnek Singh Mann was created on the GCZMA computer. “This proved that government officials were hand in glove with Lobo, which is why retired director and ex-officio joint secretary, department of science & technology Panduranga Varde and retired draftsman-I of GCZMA Wilfred Aloysius Nicolau Joao are also named in the FIR and charge sheet,” an officer told Herald.
The charges include going ahead with the construction works without conversion sanad for survey numbers 301/2, 3 and 5 from the authorities. Sanad for survey numbers 4 and 12 was issued in 2009, two years after the construction plan and licence were granted in 2007.
Sources said that Lobo, operating a property firm by name One Stop in 2006 had taken the sole responsibility to obtain permissions from the concerned authorities. “He had been an influential builder though he held 25 per cent ownership of the hotel, even before becoming the MLA,” he said.
The MLA has, however, denied the charges claiming the project is not illegal. “I am not involved in the forgery,” he said.
The four have been charged under sections 468 (forgery), 471 (using a forged document as genuine), 420 (cheating), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
