Monserrate’s ‘friend’ went into depression
Cong seeks legal opinion on I-T report; minister may get ticket
As commissioner of the Corporation of the City of Panaji, Suryanarayana struck a close bond with Monserrate in 2005-2006. Monserrate controls the city corporation to this day.
An Income Tax investigation into the former Goa government employee Suryanayana’s dealings says even when he was in service, the property broker had gone big time into land transactions. “Being a government servant, Shri N Suryanarayana apparently carried out the real estate business in the name of his wife Smt N Sunitha and brother-in-law Shri Kishore Mulla alias M Kishore,” the I-T order dated 29-11-2011says.
It is no surprise that Suryanarayana himself acquired one of the biggest chunks of agricultural/orchard properties in the I-T list that he wanted Monserrate to convert to settlement zone in 2006. With his wife and brother in law, Suryanarayana held 9,15,600 sq mts of land in the green belt in Quelossim, Mormugao. Without conversion, the property held little value. According to the I-T a bribe amount of Rs 8 crore was listed for this property alone.
Barely months after the last payments of the over Rs 26.5 crore that was conveyed to Monserrate by Suryanarayana and his clients via the builder Sadiq Shaik, Monserrate was forced to quit the ministry in January 2007 as public protests against him and the state’s Regional Plan 2011 escalated.
N Suryanarayana had desperately tried to end his life after failing to recover the money for the conversion deals, it is learnt. He was rescued, but spent months under psychiatric care in Hyderabad. Ahead of the Assembly elections, the Congress said it has asked for legal opinion on an Income Tax investigation that has tracked huge kickbacks paid to Goa Congress minister Atanasio alias Babush Monserrate for land conversions in Goa. The I-T assessment order served on property broker N Suryanarayanan has unravelled a complex trail of the bribes paid to the minister.
“I have seen the media reports and agree that these are serious cases in the public perception,” AICC general secretary J S Brar told Deccan Herald. But the party, which will announce its list of candidates for the March 3 Goa election in a day or two, is expected to renominate the controversial minister. Monserrate’s wife Jennifer is also a contender for a Congress ticket.
The Congress will contest 33 to 34 seats, leaving six or seven for its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Brar said negotiations were on with the NCP, which has sought seven seats.
