PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa has issued notices to the State government, Crime Branch and others on a criminal writ petition filed by former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat challenging the rejection of his plea to arraign three chargesheet witnesses as accused in the 2015 Louis Berger bribery case.
Kamat had challenged the January 6, 2026 order of the trial court, which dismissed his application seeking that Shiv Ramprasad Malladi, Sanjay Jindal and Prasanna Shah, who are currently chargesheet witnesses, be arraigned as accused in the case.
The High Court, while issuing notices, also granted Kamat liberty to approach the trial court seeking deferment of the framing of charges against him.
The High Court observed that if Kamat moves such an application before the trial court, the proceedings relating to framing of charges may be deferred beyond October 1, 2026, which has been fixed as the returnable date.
The development comes ahead of the next hearing in the trial court, scheduled for September 24.
The Louis Berger case relates to alleged bribery linked to consultancy services for the Japan International Cooperation Agency-funded Goa water supply and sewerage project.
