FIRs against political suspects filed in the SEZ case and the overall plot allotment case not registered
The investigations into the highly irregular allotment ofIDC plots, leading to a loss of roughly Rs 400 crores, will see another twistwith legal activists Kashinath Shetye and others moving the High Court to quashthe “toothless” government FIR filed against “unknown persons”
The vigilance department failed to file an FIR when thefirst complaint was filed before them by Kashinath Shetye, Sudip Tamankar andothers in February 2012.
The vigilance department registered an FIR in the case onlyon August 18 based on a complaint filed by IDC law officer, Mandar Shirodkarand that too against “unknown persons”
Shetye’s FIR had named several persons, including formerchief ministers Pratapsingh Rane and Luizinho Faleiro in their complaint.
Various arms of the government have obviously worked intandem. The same tactic of the police avoiding FIR’s with known names andthen after a gap of two to three yearsor more, register an FIR filed by the department, without naming any of theperpetrators.
Take for instance the FIR filed on October 22, 2007 byFranky Monteiro and the villagers of Loutolim against the fraudulent allotmentof SEZ plots has not been registered till now. On July 7 2008, the police inresponse to an RTI query on the delay in registering the case said there was“no material facts on record” to register a case. The High Court nailed thiscompletely when it held the GIDCchairman and his officers of gross illegalities.
In 2012, the current Parrikar government announced a criminalinvestigation in the same case but the FIR lodged- again by GIDC- was againstunknown people. When The Goan spoke ACB officials, it was informed that it waswaiting for “further directions” from the government.
Meanwhile Kashinath Shetye and others have approached theHigh Court requesting it to quash the FIR registered on the complaint filed bythe IDC law officer.
“We have requested the HC to quash the FIR because we werethe first complainants and in our complaint the same IDC law officer is namedas an accused on corruption charges in the land scam,” said Sudip Tamankar oneof the petitioners
. “It is quite baffling that Chief Minister, ManoharParrikar who was then opposition leader had filed a complaint to DirectorGeneral of Police on December 2, 2011 mentioning names of alleged accusedincluding Pratapsingh Rane, Luizinho Faleiro and Chandrakant Kavlekar andothers. But in power the GIDC headed by him has filed a complaint againstunknown people”
“The Chief Minister is not serious about nabbing the accusedinvolved in the scam. It is also an attempt to save Babu Kavlekar andPratapSingh Rane”, Tamankar said.
