The Goa Police is sure about corruption in the louis Berger Group international bribery scandal even as Crime Branch sleuths raided the offices of the compromised $311 million project seizing several documents.
Inspector General of Police Sunil Garg on Wednesday also suggested that tainted louis Berger officials from the US could be summoned for the questioning along with politicians and bureaucrats linked to the project.
“Corruption has been proved by US judicial proceedings, so there is no doubt. That has been established at the international level also, so corruption is there. We have to ascertain who are the involved people in this case,” Garg said, not ruling out the involvement of more than one Minister in the case.
The Goa Police Crime Branch has been tasked with investigating the case which came to light after the construction consultancy pleaded guilty to paying bribes in several countries for various projects, including the Goa water supply and sewerage project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) louis Berger admitted that it paid bribes to the tune of $976,630 bribes to secure the contracts.
The report from the US Department of Justice did not name any recepients of bribes in their report.
Former Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and former Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao could also come under the ambit of the bribery investigation, sources said. Both Kamat and Alemao have denied the allegation.
“All procedures were followed. Neither me nor my Ministers did anything wrong,” Kamat told The Pioneer.
“Whoever is connected in this case or whose name will come up during investigation will be summoned and interrogated,” Garg said, adding that the Union Ministry for External Affairs and the Interpol would be approached as and when required in course of the investigation.
The Chief Minister had initially announced that he would ask the Centre for a CBI probe in the case but later asked the Goa Police to begin a probe anyway.