A Goa Police special investigation team (SIT) on Saturday started its probe into a complaint of alleged land grab filed by British Home Secretary Suella Braverman's father Christie Fernandes, who hails from the village of Assagao in North Goa.
Christie had filed a complaint with the Goa Police earlier this week, after he found that a tract of ancestral land which came his way through inheritance had been taken over by "unknown persons". Christie is the co-owner of the property in which other relatives also have stakes.
Superintendent of Police Nidhin Valsan, who heads the SIT formed by the state police for investigating land grabbing and fraudulent land deals on Saturday confirmed that the state police are investigating the complaint filed by Christie Fernandes.
According to Valsan, a first information report (FIR) has been filed on the basis of the complaint filed by the British Home Secretary's father. While Suella was born in Kenya, her father is of Goan origin. Her mother Uma, hails from Tamil Nadu.
The SIT has filed the complaint under sections 419 (impersonation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.
The SIT had been formed amid a series of land grabbing incidents as well as fraudulent documents related to sale of land in North Goa, especially in the coastal belt, where real estate prices have shot through the roof.
The village of Assagao, where the price of land is at a premium, in some places valued at even Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 50,000 per square metre is at the epicentre of the land scams, according to complaints received by the SIT by aggrieved land owners, whose property has been sold without their knowledge by real estate brokers in collusion with the state government's revenue officials.
Nearly a dozen persons have been arrested so far in connection with land scams by the SIT.
Published 10 September 2022, 15:21 IST