Speaker of the Goa Assembly Rajendra Arlekar threatened to sue an activist lawyer as well as the media, in the wake of allegations that he has purchased a plot in the high-end Porvorim area with money disproportionate to his known sources of income.
While the Goa Police Anti-Corruption Bureau has already initiated a preliminary enquiry against the Speaker, he has claimed that he has taken a loan to get the money. Addressing a Press conference in Panaji, Arlekar said that all the allegations levelled against him were "baseless and unfounded".
local lawyer and activist Aires Rodrigues has in his complaint filed before the anti-corruption branch of the Goa Police that the BJP legislator had bought a 500 sq m plot worth Rs 72 lakh from a Delhi-based journalist. The sale deal, Rodrigues says, does not even mention the mode of payment Arlekar adopted to purchase the plot.
The complainant also said that the money used to purchase the plot was disproportionate to the Speaker's known source of income, which is around 2.76 lakh annually as per the details in the affidavit filed by him ahead of the 2012 Assembly polls. Refuting the allegations, Arlekar said that he had paid for the plot partly via a banker's cheque, while the remaining from his as well as his wife's savings.
Arlekar also said that Rodrigues had relied on his pre-poll affidavit filed in 2010-11 for details of his income and also added that his incomes had since increased because of his appointment as Speaker as well as his own business prospering. Arlekar's clarification came minutes after Anti-Corruption Bureau officials visited his office as part of a preliminary probe into Rodrigues complaint. Police sources said that Arlekar was asked to produce documents related to the land deal.