ED threatens to sue media, British nationals over graft charges

Panaji, Jan 28 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) here has threatened to file a defamation case against a local English daily and British national for tarnishing its officials' reputation.

References were made in the British Parliament Tuesday about the woes of British nationals, whose properties have been frozen or confiscated by the ED in Goa. It was subsequently reported in a local English daily.

ED spokesperson Pravin Pawar, in a formal press statement issued Wednesday, threatened to file defamation suit against the daily and a British national for "tarnishing the reputation of its officials".

On Tuesday, Britain's Conservative MP Tim Loughton, who represents the East Worthing and Shoreham constituency in South East England, raised in the parliament the issue of bogus complaints against British nationals who have purchased land in the coastal state of Goa.

Loughton also cited a specific case where he claimed two Britons were inconvenienced due to the seizure of a hotel which they had purchased in the south Goan village of Canacona, 100 km from Panaji.

He added that the issue also concerned several hundred British nationals who had purchased property in Goa, the transactions which are now in peril.

"The subject has potential to ruin the parents of one of my constituents and apparently affect 100s of others who are invested in property in Goa," he said, adding that British nationals were "frustrated by lack of action by Indians and Goan officials" also alleging "blatant corrupt practices at work".

Loughton also said that he had raised the issue with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as well as Goan Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, but to no avail.

In 2008, the state government had asked the ED to probe nearly 480 cases where land in Goa was purchased by foreigners using allegedly fraudulent means (before 2008) following official enquiries revealing that several revenue and Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) foreign investment norms had been allegedly flouted in these real estate transactions.

The government also froze sale of land to foreigners in Goa, pending the completion of the ED probe, especially after a police probe revealed that a coastal property in Morjim, 30 km from here, had been purchased by a company partly owned by Russian nationals with alleged mafia links.

Land deals conducted by foreign nationals pre-2008, worth over Rs.7 crore are being probed by the ED.

Currently, around 200 are under various stages of investigation, while 22 properties which had been illegally purchased had been confiscated by the agency.

In many of the cases, the owners of the confiscated property had gone in appeal before the Special Director (Appeals) in Mumbai.

Loughton Tuesday also named an appellate official in the ministry of finance, based in Mumbai, for having demanded a bribe of Rs.10 lakh from the British hotel owners in his address in British Parliament.

The ED in their statement has claimed that the Appellate authority is not an official of the agency.

"No official of the Enforcement Directorate Goa Office was named by Tim Loughton for extorting money from British nationals. He had named the appellate authority based in Mumbai who is not an ED official," the ED said.

Media reports have named two ED officials, who are allegedly involved in an extortion racket, pressurising the foreign nationals to shell out money in exchange for regularising their confiscated property, a charge that Pawar has denied.

The ED official has claimed that the department would file a defamation suit for "tarnishing the reputation of its officials by malicious reporting and by not bothering to check the facts either with the department or with the complainant".