Goa

The great Goa land grab 2.0: Comunidade attorney grabs shares to get illegal profits

FIR lodged against comunidade attorney, this could be just the tip of the scam iceberg

Herald Team

NERUL: After the great Goan land grab, grabbing of comunidade shares has come to light in Bardez where a similar modus operandi is used to allegedly transfer the comunidade shares by non-other than the most important office bearer of the comunidade.

Herald has documents in its possession strongly indicating  that the then Attorney of Nerul Comunidade Romana Cardo has illegally transferred around 72 shares belonging to several shareholders of Nerul Comunidade. Shockingly, this was done during the covid pandemic when people were at home.

The complainants alleged that said that the deed was done in connivance with the Administrator of Comunidade holding the post in 2019. 

Members of the Comunidade have revealed that most of the shareholders whose shares have been allegedly  transferred are settled outside Goa or India while in some cases the holders of the shares are dead. 

In one such case, shares of the Kenkre brothers from Mapusa were illegally transferred.

Their father was the rightful owner of 20 shares and had further gifted them to his two sons Anil Kenkre and Mahesh Kenkre in 1988,

However in year 2019, the accused  lady got the shares transferred in her name by giving false/fabricated documents where she published a notice in the Official Gazette stating that share certificate 195 of shares Nos 1810 to 1819 and share Certificate No 196 of share Nos 1820 to 1829  stand in name of her grand uncle Pedro Paul De Souza of Nerul.

She further stated that she has lost the share certificates and wanted to obtain a duplicate certificate for these 20 shares that actually belonged to Shrikant Kenkre who in 1988 had transferred in name of his both sons equally. 

She then managed  to transfer another set of shares which she said stood in name of her uncle Matias Augustinho Henrique Cardo on the same pretext that she lost the certificate and she desires to obtain duplicate share certificates. 

The Kenkres have strongly accused Attorney Romana Cordo of being involved in an illegal share scam of Nerul Comunidade along her entire family including her mother, twin sister Loretta, sister-in-law, sister, niece, and nephew, and the shares are transferred in name of the family members. 

As per the record available in the administrative office, initially the shares were registered on Berdandino Lobo and subsequently transferred to Arthur Baptista, Xricanta Quencro, and lastly to Anil Kenkre, and Mahesh Kenkre. But suddenly the same shares are shown in the name of Maria Bocaro, which are transferred by Romana Cordo to her name.

“There are no original records that match the said shares which are claimed to have been registered in the name of Pedro Paul De Souza. Since there is no evidence material on record to prove that the same shares were recorded in the name of Pedro Paul De Souza, it is lacking the legality of the shares”, Administrator of Comunidades North Goa Shivprasad Naik stated. 

The administrator has directed under Articles 424, 425, 426, 427, and 546 of the Code of Comunidades to confiscate the shares from the last transferee and also to recover the amount paid as a dividend. 

Anil Kenkre said, “The gravity of the crime is very serious. There are about 4,000 shareholders of Nerul Comunidade. Some shareholders have transferred their shares in their legal heirs’ names. Most of the shareholders are dead. To contest the election of the managing committee one has to be the owner of at least five shares and he or she cannot contest more than two terms. But the present attorney is continuing since 2012 in violation of Article 50 of the Code of Comunidades. The treasurer is continuing since 2012. The administrator on receipt of the complaint should suspend them and after making inquiry if found continuing in office for more than two terms dismiss them. In the instant case the present attorney when she first contested the election in 2012 she was not holding a single share and through a backdoor, she became a managing committee member.”

According to Kenkre, in the last panchayat election, she contested but lost securing only six votes. Being an attorney she is the custodian of comunidade property.  She was able to do dishonest things with the blessings of the administrator and escrivao. The illegal share transfer still continues in a rampant way. Whenever one seeks information on share transfer the office states that information is not available. To put a full stop the government should digitise and translate the records in the administrator’s office which controls 289 comunidade offices. Unless the government and the police punish these culprits, the comunidades will be finished.”

Meanwhile the Porvorim Police have registered an FIR and booked the accuse Romana Cardo under Section 420 IPC.

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