Police gun Digambar as 'prime conspirator' in Berger bribery case

GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 07 August 2015 19:53 IST

Goa police has aimed all its guns at former Congress chief minister Digambar Kamat, terming him the ‘prime conspirator’ in the Louis Berger bribery case, while pressing for his arrest.

While opposing his anticipatory bail application, the police have also said the former chief minister is a ‘habitual offender’, stating that he has also been implicated in the mining scam by Shah Commission.

According to the crime branch of Goa police, his two partners in the conspiracy are former PWD minister Churchill Alemao and A M Wachasundar, the project director of JICA-funded water supply and sewage project, worth Rs 1030 crore.

Alemao and Wachasundar have already been arrested. While former minister is in the police custody, the suspended official has been remanded to judicial custody.

They now want custody of Digambar Kamat.

Besides placing on record once again the amount of bribes paid to both Kamat and Alemao by former officials and consultancy partners, the police today told the special court that the former CM was paid a bribe of Rs 1.20 crore on two occasions.

According to sources in the crime branch, not only the people who paid the bribes have admitted it, but the same facts are also corroborated by other witnesses.

The investigating authorities have also held all the three accused responsible for either destroying or hiding the original file of JICA project, which is missing from the PWD office as well as the JICA-funded project office.

They have pressed for the custody of Digambar Kamat in order to get the missing file, for which Alemao has also been arrested.

In addition, the police have also accused Kamat of accumulating massive wealth, which the crime branch plans to verify.  

The investigations reportedly reveal that Kamat kept the whole project on hold while pressurising the consultants to pay him the bribe, through Wachasundar, the project director, who acted as the mediator.

Kamat has also been charged of keeping on hold for around four months the payment to Louis Berger, till the bribes were paid.

The payment of invoice bill, along with reimbursement of service tax, amounted to around 82.72 crore.

The hearing of Kamat’s anticipatory bail application is now scheduled on Wednesday, 12 August. Till then, he has been granted interim relief.

This is the first case Goa is witnessing where a politician holding chief minister’s post has been implicated. 


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Great! No public servant should be shared

- Tony Fernandes , Mapusa Goa | 08 th August 2015 13:00

 

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