Charge sheet filed in Serula communidade land scam

Panaji: The Crime Branch police have filed charge sheet in the 2014 alleged Serula communidade land scam case against 26 accused persons including then Serula communidade attorney Agnel Lobo and then president of Serula communidade Reginald Lobo.

The other accused include four government servants (panchayat secretaries), 15 alleged illegal plot owners and others.

In the over 2,600-page charge sheet, which has been filed before the District and Sessions Court, Panaji, the Crime Branch police have relied on 194 witnesses including investigating officer police inspector Satish Gawade. The charge sheet has been filed under offences (IPC sections) such as criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery etc and also under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

According to police, the plots were allegedly allotted illegally to 15 persons. The accused allegedly hatched a criminal conspiracy and forged documents pertaining to plots, which were legally allotted to beneficiaries.

Police has not included names of some gazetted officers in the list of accused persons, as the government did not grant permission to the Crime Branch to prosecute them. The officers were holding the additional charge of administrator of communidades (North) when the alleged irregularities had taken place, informed sources.

The case was earlier registered at the Porvorim police station and subsequently transferred by the government to the Crime Branch in 2014. The charge sheet has been filed by police inspector Gawade under the supervision of Superintendent of Police Shobhit Saksena.

The Crime Branch is also investigating another land scam case pertaining to Serula communidade. In 2017, a First Information Report was registered in the alleged Serula communidade land scam and had named as an accused the attorney of communidade of Serula, its office bearers and 25 persons, who were reportedly allotted plots illegally.

Incidentally in a separate matter, earlier this month, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), had attached land admeasuring 7,975 square metres in Socorro worth around Rs 3.19 crore in the matter of alleged illegal acquisition of Serula communidade land by sarpanch of Socorro Sandeep Vazarkar and others. The ED had initiated the investigation in the case under the provisions of PMLA, on the basis of FIR registered by Goa police against Vazarkar and other members of Vazarkar family along with Agnelo Lobo, the former attorney of communidade of Serula, on the complaints lodged by members of managing committee of communidade of Serula.