ED arrests one of the ‘masterminds’ of Goa land scam – MGP leader Rohan Harmalkar

Harmalkar was produced before a special PMLA court in Goa Wednesday and remanded to ED custody for 14 days. He was previously named in two cases of land grabbing, which are being probed by the Goa police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT). In November last year, he was arrested by the Goa police for allegedly assaulting a businessman in Arpora.

In a press statement, ED said it initiated investigation on the basis of FIRs registered by the Goa Police against Harmalkar and others. “…investigation revealed that Harmalkar is one of the key conspirators of the land scam, orchestrating the forgery and manipulation of sale deeds for multiple properties. He has also impersonated legitimate heirs, counterfeited government stamps and used these forged documents as genuine to unlawfully acquire properties,” the statement said.

The ED said the previous searches uncovered “voluminous incriminating property documents”, whose estimated current market value 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 metres in prime tourist hotspots like Anjuna, Arpora and Assagao in Bardez Taluka.

In a press statement on April 25, ED had said: “The searches were conducted based on intelligence and subsequent financial investigation conducted in this case which revealed that one person namely Rohan Harmalkar is a key mastermind, who along with other associates resorted to a large-scale conspiracy to illegally appropriate land belonging to rightful owners through fraudulent means including impersonation, creation of fake documents, tampering with revenue records”.

The agency said these properties, originally owned by individuals and family estates, were unlawfully sold without their consent, causing serious financial and legal distress to such victims.

“Additionally, original documents of immovable properties worth more than Rs 600 crore were seized during the search action. It was further unearthed 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,” ED had said.

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.

The Indian Express had earlier 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”.