Panaji, Jan 10 (IANS): Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that the government has accepted the report of Justice VK Jadhav on land grabbing cases and now ‘No Man’s Land’ will be under government control.

Sawant added that ‘No Man’s Land’ was sold by miscreants by forging documents to unsuspecting people.

“Justice Jadhav has made suggestions on the possession of such land by the authorities. We will take possession of those lands. Also government land, which was sold fraudulently, will come under our possession,” Sawant said.

He said that nine people, including three government servants, were arrested in this connection.

“We will also get a police enquiry report in these cases and accordingly they will be charge sheeted,” he said.

Sawant said that people can claim their land (which was sold as ‘No Man’s Land’) from the government after showing their documents and it would be given back to them.

Sawant said that Justice Jadhav has suggested some measures to prevent such incidents, which will be followed.

In November 2023, a one-man commission headed by Retired Justice of Bombay High Court VK Jadhav had submitted its report on land grabbing cases to the state government.

After submitting the report to Pramod Sawant within ten months, Jadhav had said, “Now the ball is in the court of the government. I have completed the report in ten months. It has been done in record time.”

According to Sawant, this land grabbing scam has been going on for the last 15 to 20 years, where lakhs of square meter of land was grabbed by miscreants.

They used to sell government land and ‘No-Man’s Land’ to others with the aid of fake documents.

Sawant earlier had said that police treated the land grabbing cases like routine ones hence the government was forced to establish a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for thorough investigation and for nabbing the land grabbers.

"People used to lodge their complaints with respective police stations which then investigated and kept it (without forwarding it to departments concerned). This forced us to establish an SIT," Sawant said.

"Around 110 properties were grabbed by miscreants that belonged to those people who were staying in other countries. Even 'No Man’s Land' was grabbed," he said.

The SIT, headed by Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch), Nidhin Valsan, was formed in July 2022 to look into complaints with regard to illegal land grabbing and conversion.