MARGAO: In a significant development in the land grab case registered by Fatorda police, the court of the additional sessions judge, Margao, has rejected the anticipatory bail application filed by one of 17 accused, Fransisco Colaco, a resident of Davorlim.
Pronouncing his order in the open court, additional sessions judge P M Shinde ruled that, prima facie, the applicant’s custodial interrogation was required with respect to “fraudulent mutations of survey holdings” in the case.
“His custodial interrogation is also required for another reason, to recover the alleged purported deed of sale on which basis the mutations were carried out. There is a mystery in the present crime which has to be investigated thoroughly and for that purpose the custodial interrogation of the applicant accused is very much required by the police,” the order reads.
Colaco, along with 17 others, have been charged under Sections 465, 468, 471, 420 of the Indian Penal Code by Fatorda police based on a complaint lodged by the Salcete mamlatdar, to the effect that the applicant along with other accused persons since January 2018 to May 2020, forged title documents i.e. deed of succession, deed of sale, tenancy purchase certificate, deed of family partition and used them as genuine and produced them before the mamlatdar, Salcete, in mutation proceedings and got their names included in Form XIV of the properties in question. They, thus, got the names of the original occupants/owners deleted, and when legal heirs of the occupants/owners asked for the information under RTI in the office of the mamlatdar, the 12 relevant files of mutations were found missing.
It was the case of the prosecution that the original succession deed used for mutation proceedings was yet to be recovered “which can only be recovered from the applicant”.
The prosecution submitted that “the mutation entry has been certified hurriedly within 23 days which otherwise would take ages to complete, hence it can also be concluded that some government officials might also be involved in the present crime”.
