NT Reporter
Panaji
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Panaji, has arrested Mohammed Suhail alias Michael under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the land grabbing scam.
The ED said Suhail, an alleged mastermind in the large-scale land grabbing in the state, was taken into custody on September 22 from the Central Jail, Colvale.
Suhail had been in judicial custody in connection with an alleged land grabbing case.
The case was investigated by the special investigation team (SIT) of the Goa police.
The Directorate said the accused was produced before the special court (PMLA), Merces, which remanded him to ED custody for four days.
The Directorate initiated an investigation under the PMLA based on a 2022 FIR and a subsequent chargesheet filed by the SIT.
The case was registered against Suhail, his wife Anjum Shaikh, and associate Nure Faijal Bhatkar for offences under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including cheating, the forgery of valuable security, and the use of forged documents as genuine, the ED elaborated.
The ED probe revealed that Suhail was the kingpin of a syndicate involved in grabbing numerous properties.
The investigation was carried out based on a complaint where Suhail and his operatives allegedly forged death certificates to create a fictitious legal heir.
They then fraudulently executed a succession deed to illegally acquire a property in Anjuna, which was subsequently sold for Rs 50 lakh, thereby generating proceeds of crime.
The Directorate said the investigations under the PMLA have exposed a deep-rooted conspiracy and a consistent modus operandi. Suhail and his accomplices would identify vacant properties, forge documents and manipulate records in government departments to create fake ownership histories.
These properties were then illegally mutated in the names of the associates and subsequently sold.
According to the ED, the arrest will help uncover the money trail, identify the end-use of the proceeds of crime, and unearth the role of other individuals in the scam.
Earlier, in a related case where Suhail is the prime accused, the ED had attached 52 illegally acquired properties valued at approximately Rs 232.73 crore and had filed a prosecution complaint against Suhail and 35 others.
During that investigation, Suhail had admitted his involvement in the illegal acquisition of over 100 properties, the ED said.
