ED seizes ₹600 cr property documents from ex-BJP man in Goa land grabbing case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) seized property papers worth ₹600 crore on Friday from former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary Rohan Harmalkar in connection with the 2022 fake land deals case in Goa.

In June 2022, the state government established a commission to investigate land grabbing cases involving fraudulent methods such as impersonation, forgery, and tampering with revenue records. As a result, the crime branch's special investigation team registered 111 cases of land grabbing involving 93 parcels of land measuring 1.5 lakh square metres across Goa.

Harmalkar, who ran for the 2022 Goa Assembly election as an independent after being denied a BJP ticket, joined the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), a BJP alliance partner, last year. The ED stated that Harmalkar is "a key mastermind" who, along with others, illegally sold properties once owned by people and family estates without their agreement, using "impersonation, creation of fake documents, tampering with revenue records, etc."