PANAJI
Urban Development Minister Milind Naik tendered his resignation from the cabinet hours after his rival Sankalp Amonkar and the Congress identified him as the minister involved in the sex scandal the spoke of a fortnight ago.
The office of the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said late on Wednesday night that the minister had resigned to facilitate a “free and fair” probe into the allegations against him.
“The resignation has been accepted and forwarded to the Governor,” the statement issued by the CMO said.
Earlier in the day, GPCC president Girish Chodankar had named Naik as the minister involved in the sex scandal which he had called out a fortnight ago on December 1.
Chodankar was vociferous with his demand that Naik be sacked and action taken against him, even as he appealed to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to back the victim and give her confidence to file a complaint against the Minister.
“Ministers like Milind Naik who sexually assault women should not be protected or the people of Goa will not forgive me,” Chodankar told reporters at a press conference.
Leading a Youth Congress delegation, Sankalp Amonkar, a known rival of Naik in Mormugao meanwhile filed a complaint against the minister relating to the incident and also released Whatsapp chats, pictures and audios allegedly implicating the minister.
The Congress’ revelation naming Naik came on a day when Mormugao police registered the FIR and began investigation based on the zero FIR lodged by a woman in Bihar, in which she had alleged that Amonkar and others were pressurizing her to implicate the minister.
The Congress had first raised the issue of a sex scandal involving a cabinet minister without naming Naik on December 1 and had asked Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to sack him in 15 days failing which Chodankar had threatened to shame the ruling party during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Goa’s 60th Liberation Day celebrations.
Later, Chodankar had been slapped a legal notice by a Mumbai-based law firm purportedly on behalf of the ‘victim’ woman from Bihar asking him to desist from naming her or the Minister.
Speaking after filing his complaint before the women’s police station, Amonkar showed prints of the Whatsapp chats and photos of the minister in a compromising position to media persons.
He said the victim herself gave her phone to him to file a police complaint before she moved to Bihar. He also played audio clips of the discussions of the victim and the minister during the press briefing.
Amonkar also said, he had met Sawant and informed him about the scandal back on November 9 and also intimated the Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai on November 17.
“I will go to the court if need be. I am ready to get arrested. I will not file for anticipatory bail as I have not done anything wrong,” Amonkar said.
