The Government on Thursday told the Bombay High Court at Goa that they are in the process of verifying claims made by Colva panch Calvert Gonsalves that the money seized from him during a raid by sleuths of the Anti Corruption Branch was casino earnings.
Hearing a petition filed by one Saturnino Rodrigues that Calvert’s bail should be cancelled, the prosecution said they would need time to verify the claims.
Saturnino Rodrigues, a 57-year-old resident from Colva and witness in the disproportionate assets case against Calvert alleged that Calvert has been threatening him and his family with dire consequences and approached the court for cancellation of his bail.
“The prosecution has told the court that Calvert has claimed that they are casino winnings and that they are verifying the claims,” Galileo Teles representing Saturnino told The Goan.
The anti-corruption branch of the directorate of vigilance, which is investigating the case against Gonsalves had arrested Calvert for allegedly possessing assets 250 percent over his known sources of income.
ACB had seized a computer from the house and found 75 lakh in fixed deposit receipts, a deposit of 75 lakh in a savings account and 50,000 in cash.
Earlier the Public Prosecutor said that states that the investigation is practically complete and the final questionnaire is served on Calvert. Subsequently Calvert sent his reply to the questionnaire on September 22. “After considering the same, a decision on filing the charge sheet would be taken,” S R Rivonkar the prosecutor told the court. Besides honorarium from the panchayat, Gonsalves has no source of income but in his income tax return, has shown his income as ₹60,000. ACB said that it has also found that Gonsalves has made a lot of foreign trips and has one BMW which is registered in the name of another person but which was paid for by Calvert.
