The former Minister of Tourism of Goa, Dilip Parulekar, is facing the case of cheating in the Serula Communidade land grabbing, and the North Goa sessions court has held that the former tourism minister had cheated the communidade of Serula and the public at large in the alleged land grabbing case which was filed against him.
According to the sources, the court also noted that the former ministers have falsely appropriated the land of Serula Communidade in association with the communidade officials. Judge Irshad Agha made the above observations while asking the former tourism minister and two others to appear before the court for having committed offenses under section 119, 120 & 420 read with section 120-B of IPC and also section 13 (1) (c) and (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act.
In his complaint, the social activist Advocate Aires Rodrigues had stated that Parulekar, attorney of communidade of Serula, Peter Martins, and then administrator of communidade of Bardez, Irene Sequeira, had together hatched the criminal conspiracy.
According to the complainant, in 2012, the comunidade granted possession of encroached area admeasuring 599 sqm to the former minister for a small amount of Rs 3,41,320. Rodrigues alleged that the value of the plot of land was more than a crore of rupees.
“The entire oral and documentary evidence brought on record clearly shows that the land of comunidade of Serula has been falsely appropriated by accused no.1 ( Parulekar) in collusion with accused no.2 ( Martins) and 3 (Sequeira). Accused no.1 has cheated comunidade of Serula and the public at large,” observed the court.
The court has also noted that Mr. Martins and Ms. Sequeira were the public servant and that they had intentionally and knowingly facilitated commission of the offence while it was their duty to do otherwise. All three have criminally conspired to commit the act of cheating, the judge remarked.
The inquiry officer, who was appointed to inquire into various allegations pertaining to Serula comunidade, deposed before the court that although as per the code, comunidade lands can be granted only by auction except under certain cases but Parulekar’s case would not fall within the exemptions provided under Article 334-A of the code of comunidades.
While applying the Section 13 (1) (c) and (d) the court observed that the tourism minister and two other accused were the government servants while doing the illegal deal and hence the section of Prevention of Corruption Act is applicable to all of them. The court has issued process against Parulekar, Martins, and Sequeira to appear before it in the case.
The case of land grab has been going on on the court for quite some time but Parulekar did not appear before the court and the case being pulled for a long time while he was holding the powerful position of Tourism Ministry in the state under the BJP government. But surprisingly the court’s decision of holding him guilty came only after he lost his position does this related somewhere? Please do leave your valuable comments and suggestions on this issue.
SOURCE: TOI
IMAGE SOURCE: HERALDO
