The land belongs to God, and God is ours, land is being sold in Mapusa with this spirit.
MAPUSA: Around 140 persons were cheated to the tune of crores of Rupees in a land fraud case by a group of people stating that they have a `setting’ with the landlord.
Residents of Cunchelim came to the Mapusa police station on Wednesday to lodge a complaint against the group who took money from them on the pretext of giving them plots of land and collected crores of money from them and after construction of houses, they were told that the land has been reserved for the crematorium for all four communities, Hindus, Christians, Muslims and other.
The agitated residents comprising mostly women stated that persons namely Raju Mandrenkar, Raja Anthony, Ramesh, Shakeel, Norbert and Shekhar Benkar allegedly took money from them and allotted to them plots admeasuring 100 sqmtrs, 140 sqmtrs and 150 sqmtrs and took from them huge money depending upon the size of the plot and they were told that the plot belongs to panchayat and told them not to worry about the documents. Documents will be given to them once everything is fine but till date there was neither sale deed or registration of plots in their names.
They reposed faith in them and were even told that if they face any problems then they can approach them and get their problems redressed. People went on paying the money in lakhs: some paid Rs 5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh depending upon the size of the plots. They have even taken money from them around Rs 25,000 each house- hold and in all Rs 9 lakh have been paid to them for power and water connections, they alleged.
They went on prolonging the process and as such we were told by the surveyors who had come there a couple of days ago that the plot is reserved for crematorium for all major communities and belongs to Communidade and all houses are illegal and would be demolished.“ So, we have decided to lodge a police complaint against them all for cheating and land fraud, recovery, they informed the press and media.
“Now, we are in trouble and nobody is coming forth to help us,” they claimed that they are mostly Goan families while others also claimed that they are not outsiders but Indian nationals. Their case should also be considered.
they alleged that when Communidade officials informed them that the plot in which their houses are located is reserved for crematorium and houses are all illegal, would be demolished and urged them to vacate the plot, they got a rude shock of their life and demanded that their hard earned money should be returned to them or regularise their houses. They have their Adhaar cards, Voting cards and residential addresses.
While the RTI activist, Rajan Ghate stated as per his knowledge the plot was given to industrial purposes in the year 1988 and therafter in 2013 late Mapusa MLA , Francis D’ Souza had passed a resolution to reserve that plot for the crematorium but revealed that a politician is allegedly involved in the land fraud and money scam, and it needs to be investigated thoroughly and need to bring the culprit to book and claimed to know the alleged accused but would disclose at an appropriate time.
He urged the chief minister, Dr Pramod Sawawnt to intervene in the episode and either regularise their houses as they are mostly Goan families and hailing from poor strata of society.
