MAPUSA
A special court in Mapusa on Monday adjourned the matter in the Louis Berger money laundering and bribery case involving former chief minister Digambar Kamat and ex-PWD minister Churchill Alemao to March 15.
When the matter came up for hearing, the counsel for one of the accused moved an application under section 319 of the CrPC seeking more time following which the matter was adjourned.
In 2015, the crime branch had registered an offence under section 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information) of the IPC and section 7, 8 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Kamat, Alemao and others.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2015 against both Kamat and Alemao who were ministers in the government in 2010, Louis Berger and others.
Kamat along with Alemao and other government officials have been accused of allegedly accepting a $976,630 bribe in 2010 from officials of US-based Louis Berger consultancy firm ostensibly to secure implementation rights of a multi-billion dollar water and sewerage project in Goa worth Rs1,031 crore funded by the Japan International Co-Operation Agency (JICA).
