the goan I network
PANAJI
Goa Police’s Anti-Corruption Branch has booked former St-Cruz Sarpanch Mariano Araujo along with three others, including two serving panchas, for demanding a bribe from one of the partners of prominent city-based construction firm Edcon.
The First Information Report (FIR) against all the three accused panchas was registered by the ACB on February 5, several months after the formal complaint was lodged by Cedric Vaz, an engineer and one of the partners of the firm.The FIR has also named other panch members Lawrence Rodrigues, Ulhas Naik and Prasad Naik for the same offence of seeking a bribe from the builder. Vaz had also provided an audio recording of the conversation as evidence against all the three accused, who are currently panch members of St Cruz Panchayat.
Vaz alleged that they demanded Rs 25,000 per flat and an additional Rs 10 lakh to give the permissions for commencing work on a 26-unit apartment building his firm had proposed in St Cruz.
The complaint was first filed in September 2018 before the Superintendent of Police Anti-Corruption Bureau.
ACB’s Police Inspector Gurudas Kadam is investigating the case even as the builder has till date not been issued the construction licence for his building, despite success in proceedings before the Director of Panchayat.
The builder has now moved the District Court to secure the licences. “Every time the builder is being treated as someone who is doing wrong. I want to show society that actually the panchas do illegal things and harass the law abiding builders,” Vaz said when contacted.
