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WHY NO SANCTION: COURT
* On Tuesday, court directs the Crime Branch to respond on why there's no government sanction yet to prosecute the minister
* Matter adjourned to July 21 for further directions. Crime Branch to submit routine status report detailing progress of investigation
* In January 2014, Adv Rodrigues had alleged that no norms were followed while giving away Serula Communidade land to Parulekar
* The plot was allotted to Parulekar at a cost of Rs three lakh, the market value of the same was around Rs one crore, he stated in a PIL
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Crime Branch of Goa Police continues to await a formal response even after one year since applying for government sanction to prosecute Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar in the Serula Communidade case of alleged land grab.
Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act on Tuesday sought a written reply from the Crime Branch explaining why it has yet to secure the government sanction required to prosecute the minister.
Judge BP Deshpande has adjourned the matter to July 21 for further directions. The investigating authority will also be submitting a routine status report detailing the progress of the ongoing investigation.
The Court heard the complainant, Adv Aires Rodrigues, who alleged that the Crime Branch is attempting to vitiate the investigation by declaring that Parulekar was a victim who was misled by the Communidade officials to grab the land. Allegations of land grab surfaced when Adv Rodrigues filed a petition in Judicial Magistrate First Class, Mapusa on January 16, 2014.
The petition stated that 599 square metre of Serula Communidade's prime land on the Chogm Road at Porvorim had been given away to Saligao MLA and Tourism Minister Parulekar without any auction and without following the procedure contemplated under the Code of Communidade.
It was also stated that while the plot was allotted to Parulekar at a cost of Rs three lakh, the market value of the same was around Rs one crore, thereby casting a shadow over the procedure followed while regularizing the said plot of land.
Upon directions of JMFC, Mapusa, Porvorim Police had registered an FIR for offences under Sections 119, 120, 420 read with 120-B of IPC against Parulekar, then attorney of Communidade of Serula Peter Martins and then Administrator of Communidade of Bardez Irene Sequeira. Investigation in the case was later transferred to the Crime Branch.
