NEW DELHI, Sept 10: The Goa police have launched an investigation of alleged land grabbing of the property claimed to be owned by the father of the home secretary of the United Kingdom Suella Braverman.
Braverman, an Indian-origin barrister, was appointed as the UK’s new Home Secretary by Prime Minister Liz Truss earlier this week. Braverman’s father, Christie Fernandes, has complained that his two ancestral properties collectively admeasuring 13,900 square metres in Assagao have been usurped, Superintendent of Police (SIT) Nidhi Vasan said.
Following the complaint, the Special Investigation Team of the state police has filed a case and launched a probe.
Based on the complaint, the SIT has registered the First Information Report (FIR), he said, adding that investigation into the case has begun. Fernandes complained that some unidentified person through power of attorney had filed inventory proceedings with respect to the properties bearing survey numbers 253/3 and 252/3 in Assagao village owned by him and his family members.
As per the complaint, the inventory proceedings were filed prior to July 27 this year and he came to know about it in August, Fernandes has filed the complaint with the chief minister Pramod Sawant, state Director General of Police Jaspal Singh and Goa NRI Commissionerate through an e-mail.
The Goa NRI commissioner Narendra Sawaikar said the e-mail was received last week by his department, which was forwarded to the state home department. “The NRI Commissionerate does not have powers to investigate such cases. Hence, we forwarded the complaint to the home department,” he said.
The Goa government had earlier this year formed the SIT comprising officials from the police, revenue and Archives and Archaeology Department to investigate cases of land grabbing. The SIT is investigating more than 100 such cases in the state, and arrested more than 15 persons, including two officials from Archives and Archaeology Department.
(Manas Dasgupta)
