Rohan Harmalkar’s eye was on ‘unattended’ properties for Delhi-NCR buyers: ED

PANAJI: A day after the enforcement directorate (ED) seized property documents worth Rs 600 crore from the offices and residence of Rohan Harmalkar, it seized his house. The directorate said that Harmalkar — who contested the 2022 assembly election as an independent — would identify properties that were unattended for many years, and that his clients were mostly from Delhi-NCR and Haryana.

Most of the properties Harmalkar identified either had no legal heir, or the owner was deceased or lived abroad without returning to Goa for decades.
Once Harmalkar had identified these properties, he along with other accused persons engaged in impersonation, creation of fake documents, and tampering with revenue records to sell those properties, the ED said. Harmalkar acted on behalf of some land purchasers so that people from outside Goa could acquire these properties below market price. In some cases, Harmalkar cheated the customers. “Harmalkar had multiple customers outside the state, including from Delhi-NCR and Haryana, among other places,” it said.
On Friday, the ED searched his office and residences in connection with an alleged land scam.
It seized documents of immovable properties worth over Rs 600 crore. The operation also uncovered incriminating property documents worth Rs 1,000 crore in prime tourist hotspots of North Goa.
The searches revealed incriminating property documents, the current market value of which exceeds Rs 1,000 crore. These included forged title deeds, indicating manipulation of land records and fraudulent transfers of high-value land parcels spanning several lakhs of square meters in places like Anjuna, Arpora, and Assagao in Bardez taluka, the ED said.
The ED earlier registered a case against Harmalkar, who contested the 2022 election from the Cumbharjua constituency, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). The ED stated that the searches on Friday were conducted based on intelligence and subsequent financial investigation, which revealed that Harmalkar is a key mastermind. He, along with other associates, engaged in a large-scale conspiracy to illegally appropriate land belonging to rightful owners through fraudulent means, including impersonation, creation of fake documents, and tampering with revenue records, the directorate said.
Goa police have also registered an FIR against Harmalkar in connection with an alleged land grab case in Anjuna.