In a crackdown on what is emerging as one of Goa’s biggest land scams, the Directorate of Enforce ment (ED) has unearthed a sprawling racket involving the fraudulent acquisition and sale of prime land par cels worth over Rs 1,200 crore. Acting on an FIR regis tered by Goa Police, the ED conducted two days of ex tensive search operations across 13 locations in Goa and Hyderabad, seizing Rs 72 lakh in cash, seven high-end luxury cars, mul tiple bank accounts and a trove of incriminating documents.
The searches, carried out under the Preven tion of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, have brought to light how the accused — led by Yeshwant Sawant and others — al legedly orchestrated a sys tematic land grab of more than 3.5 lakh square metres in Anjuna and Assagao, using forged historical doc uments to illegally mutate properties into their names.
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Investigators revealed that once the properties were fraudulently acquired, portions were sold off, generating il licit proceeds running into several crores. Among the flashy seizures that point to the scale of the racket were a Porsche Cayman, BMW 650 L, Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz, BMW M5 and an Audi A6 — vehicles said to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime. According to the ED, the case pertains to land belonging to the Comunidade of Anjuna.
The revelations have once again spotlighted the deep-rooted nexus of forgers, middle men and officials that enables large-scale land grabs in the State, where rising real estate values have triggered a surge in property-related scams. The ED has hinted at the possibility of a wider conspir acy, with the likelihood of more names surfacing as the probe progresses. Officials believe the scam is not an iso lated case but part of a larger network engaged in system atic land grabbing across Goa, with ripple effects on local communities and landowners who risk losing their rightful heritage.
Further investigation is underway, and more arrests and seizures are expected in the coming weeks as the ED tight ens its net on what could be one of the State’s most auda cious property frauds in recent memory
