Coastal politician fished by IT men

| 12 January 1998 12:03 IST

Goa may not have scored well in VDIS collections. But perhaps it is the first state to clamp down upon the tax evaders, beginning with a politician-turned-real estate agent of the famous coastal village of Calangute.

Raiding a palacious bungalow worth Rs 40 lakh of a panchayat member of the coastal Calangute village, the IT officials recovered documents worth Rs 1.5 crore, including around 60 files of land agreements and property sale deeds. All his bank accounts as well as lockers are also frozen.

The coastal villages of Goa, of which Calangute is a prime attraction for foreign tourists, have become business centres for all sorts of activities, from hawala dealings of foreign exchange to drug trafficking. As a result, construction boom has also destroyed scenic beauty of the coast.

Anthony Menezes, a panchayat member of Calangute, is involved in several real estate dealings as well as runs a security agency for all the hotels in the coastal areas. The IT officials here now plan to continue such raids on those, who evaded duties even under VDIS.

Besides people owning cellphones, says Shyamsunder Keshkamat, assistant director of investigation branch, investors in real estate market would also be targeted. The IT office is believed to have prepared a list of all such people, who have reportedly invested black money into it.

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