The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) carried out raids at multiple locations in Goa in connection with a probe into an alleged “major land scam” and said it uncovered property documents estimated to be valued at over Rs 1,000 crore, including forged title deeds.
The search operations were carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) at multiple locations in Goa on Thursday and Friday. The searches were conducted based on intelligence and subsequent financial investigation in a case.
An official said on condition of anonymity that one Rohan Harmalkar, who contested as an Independent in the 2022 Goa Assembly election after he was denied a ticket by the BJP, was allegedly the “key mastermind” behind the “scam”. The official alleged that Harmalkar and associates resorted to a “large-scale conspiracy to illegally appropriate land belonging to rightful owners through fraudulent means including impersonation, creation of fake documents and tampering with revenue records”.
“These properties, originally owned by individuals and family estates, were unlawfully sold without their consent, causing serious financial and legal distress to such victims,” the official said.
Harmalkar was previously named in a case by the Goa Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing land grabbing cases in the state.
According to the ED, the searches on Thursday and Friday uncovered “incriminating property documents, the current market value of which exceeds Rs 1,000 crore, including forged title deeds, indicating manipulation of land records and fraudulent transfers of high-value land parcels spanning several lakhs of square meters in prime tourist hotspots like Anjuna, Arpora, and Assagao in Bardez Taluka.” “Additionally, original documents of immovable properties worth more than Rs 600 crore were seized during the search action,” the official said.
“It was found during the search that the proceeds of crime generated were further laundered through various individuals and benami entities and finally invested into real estate, luxury vehicles and other high-value assets. Further investigation is ongoing to trace the money trail, identify other beneficiaries, and the roles of other persons, including government officials connected with the process of illegal property transactions,” the official added.
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The Goa government formed an SIT on June 15, 2022 to investigate cases of illegal land transfer and land grabbing using forged documents. The SIT probed 44 FIRs involving more than 100 properties — nearly 1.5 lakh square metres of land — and made 56 arrests (until December 2024), including some officials from the Archives Department. The state government appointed a Commission of Inquiry headed by former Bombay High Court judge Justice V K Jadhav (Retd) on September 9, 2022 to probe land grabbing cases.
In December 2024, The Indian Express had exclusively reported the findings of the report of the Commission of Inquiry. The Inquiry report detailed how government records had been tampered with in a “systematic and organised” manner and forged sale deeds with Portuguese-era calligraphy were inserted into the records, allegedly “in connivance with the staff of the Directorate of Archives and Archaeology”.