MAPUSA: Those investigating the widespread cases of fraudulent sale of land are intrigued to find an identical set of people who have “bought” and sold” land from the original landowners (many of them as mentioned in the first part of this story, are dead, or were five years old when the land was sold, or not even born (when the sale was affected).
The most common names which are found on every Form I and IV document and sale deeds are:
Lenchu K. James and Siddhesh Sadashiv Parab as one group.
Second group of people are Antonia Francisca Pereira, Antonio Martinho Diniz, Diogo Roberto Rodrigues, Maria Anton D’Souza, Maria Joaqueina Carwalho and Paulina Juliana Diniz.
And third and most common are Branca Cassiana Diniz alias Branca Rodrigues, Paulina Juliana Diniz alias Palmira Gonsalves, Mariano Antonio Teles Gonsalves and Royson Rodrigues.
In one incident, the grandmother of a public prosecutor was made as the power of attorney when she has already died. She died in 1979 and the deed is signed in 1996.
THE MODUS OPERANDI
There are a few names that are commonly found in almost 90 per cent of cases, and they are members of two families. One family is from Ponda. They use the method of creating fake sale deeds in the Portuguese language and grab the property by transferring them to one of the members’ names and then further sell the properties within themselves showing that the land is sold by providing different addresses.
As per the process of mutation, an application for mutation is put up after which the notices to the concerned parties are issued by post for objections. If no objection is received from the parties then public notice is inserted in newspapers.
The Advocate who is fighting the cases on behalf of the owners said that all the insertion of deeds is done during the lockdown.
While the numbers are much more, there are 45 clear cases of land grabbing reported in Assagao, Badem, Anjuna, and Parra in the last two months where most of the properties are transferred by culprits by rewriting the sale deed in the Portuguese language.
However, in all these 45 cases, the concerned Mamlatdar has acted in a bizarre manner.
In one such case, an old deed of 1951 is taken where owners have sold the property even before they were born. The application for mutation is put on March 7th. On the same day, the affidavit is filed, and the Mamlatdar clears it when signatures of the parties are missing. Notices are sent to fake addresses with no house numbers.
“Everything is done brazenly because they care for nothing. This is a total mockery of the system,” one Advocate Augustus said.
There are some cases where, the names of persons who were not even born during the time of signing of the deed have been mentioned in the sale deed while in some cases, people who are dead, their signatures are found on deeds.
The actual owners of these lands in the jurisdiction of Anjuna, Badem, and Assagao are presently going through a tough time and crying for justice. If these affected people approach the court then it will take at least 8 to 10 years to clear the matter. There are few owners who are senior citizens and are helpless.
Instances have come to light where the original owners are being threatened where the new buyer sends goons and threaten the owner not to enter into the property.
Through the information obtained through RTI, it indicates that Mamlatdars who verify documents before approving the mutation have cleared files without authenticating the documents properly, including checking for the right signatures
Advocate Christina Dias, who is helping victims of land grab said, “It is a terrible time for our villagers right now. In Badem areas 18 cases are reported and there are almost 45 cases in Assagao, Anjuna, Badem and Parra. Presently we are working on it. We have taken out all the documents whether they are false or genuine. We have met the Mamlatdar and he has asked us to file for a review after which he will revert it but so far nothing has been done. More than 1,00,000 sq mts land has been transferred and grabbed.”
