the goan I network
PANAJI
AAP on Saturday said that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar should refrain from stating complete falsehoods on the floor of the Assembly and questioned his written statement that no case related to the CDM-Smith bribery case was pending in any police station in Goa.
Parrikar had made the statement in reply to a question tabled by Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco regarding the status of the case.
AAP General Secretary Pradeep Padgaonkar at a media briefing, stated that Parrikar’s claims were untrue and showed a copy of a complaint lodged with SP Bosco George at the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) on September 15, 2017. The complaint was duly acknowledged by the ACB but no FIR was registered, Padgaonkar said.
Subsequently, after the CBI booked cases and raided officials in connection with this case in other parts of the country, AAP also approached the CBI informing them of the Goa angle to the case.
“If the Congress does not file a breach of privilege motion in the matter, then it will be proved that there is match-fixing. It is common knowledge that the BJP-led government acted with unusual haste and efficiency in the similar Louis-Berger case during the Congress term,” said Padgaonkar.
CDM Smith, a Boston based company, is alleged to have paid $1.18 million to officials to get four contracts. The case was discovered when NHAI ordered enquiry into the allegation last July after the Boston firm made a self-disclosure to the US Justice Department that it had paid officials 2-3 per-cent of the total value of the works to bag the contracts.
