PANAJI
The Aam Aadmi Party has said it will ‘pursue’ the case of the CDM Smith bribery case, which was ignored by the State government ostensibly because it involved the officials and possibly ministers during the tenure of the BJP government, with the CBI now that the agency has taken cognizance of the case.
The AAP, which had filed a complaint with the State Anti Corruption Bureau back in September last year but did not pursue the case for several months after it was rejected by the ACB, said that they would now pursue it with the CBI.
“We had recently (sic) filed the complaint with the ACB but the same was unreasonably rejected without even examining its merits. We were in the process of moving the JMFC court when it came to notice that the CBI had taken cognizance of the same and hence they would now place the complaint before the CBI,” AAP leader Gavi Coutinho said in a statement to the media.
“There was no difference between the CDM Smith case with that of the Louis Berger bribery case wherein the previous BJP government had accused former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, former PWD Minister Churchill Alemão and others who were arrested with the only exception of Kamat who secured bail.
The only difference, he said, was that the accusation in the CDM Smith case related to the period when the BJP government itself was in power, which is why the state machinery developed cold feet.
“So the inference is that some influential persons are sought to be protected and the Congress, as usual, has gone silent as some of their own players who are common for both the teams could possibly be involved. Bribes are certainly paid, so someone has surely received,” Coutinho said.
“It has been revealed through statutory proceedings launched and settled by the United States Justice Department, that officials of the Goa PWD were paid bribes to the tune of $25,000 between 2011 and 2015, to bag and execute a water project in Goa.
“As you may be aware, Manohar Parrikar, Laxmikant Parsekar and Digambar Kamat served as Chief Ministers in this specific period. Also, Ramkrishna Dhavalikar and Churchill Alemão, served as PWD Ministers,” AAP leader Valmiki Naik said in his complaint addressed to SP Bosco George.
The complaint has been filed alleging offences under section 171-B, 171-E of the IPC and sections 7-13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
“This same (United States Justice Department) department had exposed the Louis Berger scam. The exact same scenario as Louis Berger. Goan officials and politicians were paid bribes, this is clear from the US Department of Justice. But in this case, there was no investigation,” Naik said.
