PANAJI
A day after Goa police said that Pooja Naik’s statements in the jobs-for-cash inquiry were not corroborated with the evidence gathered so far, the prime accused has escalated the controversy by again naming PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar, IAS officer Nikhil Desai, and PWD Chief Engineer Uttam Parsekar as alleged beneficiaries of the scandal.
Speaking to media on Friday, Naik claimed that Minister Dhavalikar “directly told” her to contact Desai and Parsekar, alleging that the trio oversaw the processing of job applications against vacancies that were created by the government.
“PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar directly told me to contact Nikhil Desai and Uttam Parsekar now. He asked me to coordinate with them. Only after that would the applications be processed,” Naik alleged. Naik said she earlier worked in the office of MGP.
She claimed to have forwarded around 613 applications, for which Rs 17.68 crore was paid by job aspirants from 2019 to 2022. “None of them got the job. Prior to that, about 80 got jobs”, she said adding that thousands of vacancies were announced across several departments.
“Sometimes it was 4,000, 6,000 or even 10,000 posts announced... We were a team of nine people who were tasked with collecting applications and bribe money. I don’t know how much others gave, but these numbers are from my side,” she revealed. Several of her associates, she added, were arrested earlier.
Naik also alleged that key evidence was contained in one of two mobile phones seized by police after her arrest last year. “I had personally handed over the money to the two officers in the same flat which the Crime Branch says was rented out to hotel management students... The phone with the Mardol police had all the evidence against the officers. It was attached after my arrest,” she said.
On Thursday, the Superintendent of the Crime Branch, Rahul Gupta told a press conference that their ongoing preliminary inquiry into the case had not produced any evidence implicating government officials.
Gupta also said that while Naik had named two government functionaries in her statement, no corroborative material had yet emerged. “There is nothing on record to substantiate the allegations as of now,” he said and clarified that although Naik had named a minister when narrating events, “she has not accused the minister of involvement”.
