PANJIM: Fakery, misappropriations, impersonations, lies, and deceit of massive proportions have come to light in the investigations that have been conducted in land-grabbing cases reported in South Goa.
Masterminds involved in some of the land-grabbing cases in South Goa have gone to the extent of creating fake, non-existent personalities in the names of their own relatives to grab land.
The fakery did not end here. Investigations have revealed that some of the accused persons have taken Portuguese passports and settled abroad by creating a series of fake documents cheating the original owners and all the Government authorities.
Most of the cases have been registered under the Margao and Fatorda police stations. In one specific case, a lone person from Dharwad has been arrested and 18 others were booked. In another a Navelim-based advocate and notary has been booked, indicating that this rot runs deep
Members of the Special Investigative Team (SIT) land grabbing while revealing the quantum of fakery said that with proper investigation the case is strong enough to detain the entire staff of responsible line agencies.
“Investigations have revealed that the masterminds of land grabbing have created fake stamps and seals of the Town and Country Planning Department (TCP) to bypass the authorities from the process,” the SIT Police Inspector (PI) Suraj Samant, who is the officer heading the investigations, said.
The main accused in the cases usually created a Power of Attorney (PoA) to enable land transfer. In a particular case that has been reported in Cuncolim, the accused persons have relied upon PoA of a person who was dead three years ago.
The accused then used the PoA to effect the transfer of land into the name of one of his siblings. The investigation has revealed that the sibling never existed.
The mastermind of this case is one Floyd Coutinho. In one case, revealing a pattern for other cases, a fake entity by the name of Freddy Coutinho has been created. He is actually Fakruddin Ambalati, a native of Hubli named as an accused in the case and is a buyer of one of the properties.
Fakruddin Ambalati acquired a Portuguese passport and an OCI between 2012 and 2018 with a fabricated name of Freddy Coutinho claiming to be a legal heir of the Coutinho family.
Next scam: Forgery and duplicity in names and signatures of deponents
Investigation into the paper trail has revealed that name of the deponent and sign of the deponent are non-existent and a complete mismatch. Deponents are the persons who are parties who are signatories when documents are registered. More often than not family members are deponents or signatories along with the buyer of my property.
It was revealed after the investigation agency cross-checked the signs and the photo identity documents that were used to register documents before the authorities.
The accused persons have then taken Portuguese passports in their names to settle abroad with the help of fake documents.
With one Floyd Coutinho, who the police says is the mastermind and one Freddy Coutinho, who is actually Fakruddin Ambalati but has a Portuguese passport, it is clear that the land grabbers were miles ahead before the SIT caught up with what they were up to. Now catching them is going to another long- even perhaps a wild-goose chase.