Mohammed Suhail, the alleged master mind of Goa’s biggest land grab syndicate, was arrest ed by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) from the Colvale Correctional Home, where he was in judicial custody awaiting trial in another case. The ED was granted four days' custody by the Special Court PMLA, Merces, on Tuesday. “My emphasis is to take on those accused to task. The focus is to attach ille gal property before they are transferred. This was a good catch for us,” stated Avaneesh Tiwari, Addition al Director, ED. Suhail had been under the radar since 2013 and was first arrested by the ED on November 23, 2023. After being granted bail, he became untraceable and was finally arrested on June 21, 2025, near a petrol pump in Quepem. As per documents ac cessed by O Heraldo, Suhail had laid his hands on eight government properties (Evacuee Properties) in An juna and one in Mapusa, all admeasuring 223,155 square metres and approximately valued at Rs 12.5 crore. Hailing from Karnataka but residing in Pilar, Suhail confessed during interro gation by the ED and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to being involved in
92 cases of land grabbing. Eight fraudulent muta tions were executed, while 16 others were either dis missed, objected to, or found invalid. According to ED sources, the modus operandi was to falsely claim ownership of properties through al leged ancestral inheritance. Forged succession deeds were created through fabri cated inventories and used to insert names into Goa’s land records. “These forged docu ments/ succession deeds were used to get their names updated/ inserted in the land records of Goa,” reads a document accessed.
The document further reads “in the absence of any online records, the documents of such illegally grabbed proper ties were either changed or destroyed by these fraudsters.” “Once these properties started reflecting in the names of these wrongful owners, they sold these properties to some other buyers in connivance with the accused person. Some properties were also transferred to the names of the rela tives of these persons,” the accessed note explained. A statement recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA by the ED reads: “Mr Mohammed Suhail and Mr Rajkumar Maithi in their statement recorded u/s 50 of PMLA have confessed and stated that the property was illegally ac quired by them by using forged and fabricated documents.” “Mr Mohammed Suhail in his statement has stated that this property was transferred in the names of Mr Shameer Mohamed Shaikh (his brother) and Haroon Habib Moti wala by him without the payment of any consideration amount,” reads the document. Documents accessed by O Heraldo also reveal that the names of Suhail’s wife and brother appear in a chart pre pared by the ED, showing them as owners of Survey No 160/2 in the village of Assagao, which was purchased for Rs 1.34 crore. An ED press release dated September 22, 2025, states: “ED initiated an investigation under PMLA based on FIR No 64/2022 and a subsequent charge sheet filed by the Special Investigative Team (SIT–Land Grab), Goa Police. The police case was registered against Md Suhail, his wife Anjum Sheikh and an associate Nure Faijal Bhatkar, for of fences including cheating, forgery of valuable security, and using forged documents as genuine under various sections of IPC.” The ED has attached 52 illegally acquired properties val ued at approximately Rs 232.73 crore and has filed a pros ecution complaint against Suhail and 35 others. Suhail, according to the ED, was for a while not traceable and non-cooperative, deliberately avoiding multiple sum mons issued under PMLA. ED sources are now confident that with his arrest, more is expected to come out from his closet.