Panaji: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Panaji, on Thursday attached a property at Socorro village valued at Rs 4.2 crore in connection with an alleged land grab case.The 5,000-sqm property, comprising 11 plots, has been attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.Porvorim police had registered an FIR under the IPC for cheating, impersonation, and forgery of documents based on a complaint by the property owner’s heir. Crime branch’s special investigation team is currently investigating the case.The ED investigation revealed that the property, owned by the complainant’s late father, was allegedly grabbed through inventory proceedings in civil court, which falsely claimed that the father of two sisters from Pune was the deceased owner.“With the order so obtained, the property was mutated in the land records in the names of the two sisters. A power of attorney dated Feb 17, 2018, in respect of the property had earlier been obtained from the two sisters and their husbands at Pune by a resident of Socorro,” ED said.ED investigation further revealed that a person who later bought plots from the property transferred Rs 9 lakh to one of the sisters on Jan 22, 2018, before the power of attorney was executed and a year before the inventory proceeding, which was used to create the title. This indicates that the sale of the property was arranged and partly paid for before any legal authority to sell existed.“The property was thereafter subdivided, without any planning permission, into 11 plots, which were sold between 2018 and 2020 to nine purchasers through a chain of brokers, under sale deeds executed by John Paul Valles as the power of attorney holder,” ED said.ED said five of the sale deeds were executed in 2018 and claimed the vendors had acquired title through inventory proceedings that had not yet taken place.“The sale deeds declared an aggregate consideration of Rs 63.6 lakh, whereas Rs 1.5 crore was actually paid, largely in cash and through cheques handed over with the name of the payee left blank, the fair market value of the plots conveyed being Rs 3.4 crore,” ED said.ED said they searched eight premises in Goa and Pune and seized digital devices and documents.
