In a setback to Opposition parties Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), a Goa special court on Thursday cleared the way for framing of charges against two former Chief Ministers Digambar Kamat and Churchill Alemao in connection with a 2015 money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate.
While Kamat is currently the Leader of Opposition in the state legislative assembly, Alemao, also a former CM, is the NCP's only MLA in Goa, which is headed for assembly polls in early 2022.
In her order on Thursday, Special Judge Sherin Paul has said that the charges should be framed against the duo, while also directing both Kamat and Alemao to remain present in court on July 26.
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 Rs 1,031-crore sewerage and drinking water augmentation project funded by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).
Former Public Works Department minister Churchill Alemao, who served in the Kamat cabinet, has already been arrested and charge-sheeted 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.
Both Kamat and Alemao have denied any wrongdoing in the awarding of the consultancy contract to Louis Berger.
Published 22 July 2021, 18:09 IST