Properties of two former Goa Chief Ministers, now sitting legislators, Digambar Kamat and Churchill Alemao have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate which is probing the multi-million louis Berger bribery scam in which heavy-weight politicians, top bureaucrats and company officials have been chargesheeted.
According to an official statement issued by the Goa branch of the ED, the attached properties of both the former Chief Ministers are valued at Rs1.95 crore.
“The attached properties worth Rs1.20 crore of Digamber Kamat includes a plot of land of area 4047 sq. feet situated at Gogol (located in the South Goa town of Margao), residential building at Taligao (near Panaji) and fixed deposits of Rs41.35 lakh,” the statement issued on Thursday said.
Alemao’s attached properties are valued at Rs75 lakh and includes eight apartments in his own legislative Assembly constituency of Benaulim in South Goa. While Kamat is a sitting Congress MlA from Margao, Alemao is a sitting Nationalist Congress Party legislator from Benaulim.
ED sources said that the properties were allegedly purchased using the proceeds of the bribes allegedly received from louis Berger officials.
“We have managed to trace the money route from the point where bribes were taken to where the money was used to purchase the properties,” sources told The Pioneer.
“The Enforcement Directorate has investigated the financial trail of the proceeds of crime obtained by the accused person in the louis Berger Bribery case. The officials of louis Berger, Nihon Suido Consultants Company ltd, Japan, NGS Consultants Company ltd, Japan, Shah Technical Consultancy Company ltd, India and other Government officials and hawala operators were examined,” the statement said.
According to the charge-sheet filed by the Crime Branch of the Goa Police, Kamat was heading a Congress-led coalition government, when he is alleged to have accepted a part of a $976,630 worth bribe from louis Berger officials, in order to award the consultancy company, a contract to oversee the implementation of a Rs1,031 crore sewerage and drinking water augmentation project funded by a Japan-based international funding agency.
According to the charge-sheet filed by Crime Branch, Kamat is alleged to have received kickbacks to the tune of Rs1.2 crore, a charge which Kamat has rejected on numerous occasions.
Former Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao has already been arrested and chargesheeted by the Crime Branch in the same case, in which several senior officials of the State Government, top management personnel of louis Berger, a hawala operator and a close political aide of Kamat have also been arrested.
The former Chief Minister has been chargesheeted for criminal conspiracy (120-b) 201 (tampering with evidence) of the Indian Penal Code and other sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, even as the Enforcement Directorate in Goa has also started a separate probe into the louis Bergerbribery case.
A letter rogatory has also been sent to the US Government for further investigation of the accused James McClung, a top former official of louis Berger, who allegedly authorised the payment of bribes.
