TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
PORVORIM: Acting on directives from the Mapusa Judicial Magistrate First Class, Porvorim police has booked an offence against Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar and two others in connection with a plot of land along the CHOGM road at Porvorim.
Parulekar has denied any wrongdoing in the case and said he was “not worried” about the offence booked against him.
Porvorim Police Inspector Shivram Vaigankar registered the FIR under sections 119, 120 and Section 420 read with 120 B of the Indian Penal Code. Besides Parulekar, the FIR has also named Serula Communidade Attorney Peter Martins and the then Administrator of the Comunidade of Bardez Irene Sequeira as co-accused in the case.
A Panjim-based lawyer in his complaint had alleged that Parulekar, Martins and Sequeira by their acts of omission and commission and by acting in criminal conspiracy had caused immense loss to the Serula Comunidade by stripping its prime land at a throw-away price to the detriment of the Comunidade.
The lawyer also pointed out that the Comunidade of Serula granted the land admeasuring 599 square metres in Socorro village to Parulekar on receiving a mere Rs 3,41,320 though the value of the land was otherwise worth more than a crore.
When contacted, Parulekar stated that he has not done any illegal thing and hence he is not worried about the FIR against him.
“I have been doing business on the land for the last 20 years. The general body of Serula Comunidade in its meeting on December 4, 2011, had adopted a resolution to authorize its managing committee to regularize the land of 599 square metres as per Article 380(2) and also to collect arrears of 20 years from me as per the rates fixed by the state government,” Parulekar told Herald.
“Further, the Administrative Tribunal of Goa had conveyed its permission to the Serula Comunidade on September 27, 2012, to receive the value of encroached land of 599 square metres to regularize it,” informed Parulekar.
“I paid the value of land as per the rates fixed by the state government and also the arrears for 20 years. Thus, it is clear that I have not cheated the Serula Comunindade,” he stated.
“The Serula Comunidade has regularized the alleged encroachment after following the legal procedure and the question of me cheating anyone now does not arise,” said Parulekar.
