Ten years after the alleged commission of offence, the Goa Police’s Special Investigation Team, tasked with investigating the mammoth
`35,000 crore illegal mining scam, chargesheeted former Chief Minister and sitting Congress MLA Digambar Kamat, along with two others using fraudulent means to condone delay in the renewal of a mining lease.
Speaking to The Pioneer a senior police official attached to the SIT said that the 1572 page chargesheet has been filed in South Goa Principal District and Sessions Court.
“Kamat and two others are accused in the case, which goes back to 2007, when he was Chief Minister. He has been charged under relevant sections of the Mines and Minerals Regulation and Development Act, Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code,” the official said.
In 2007, Kamat is alleged to have accepted bribes to condone the delay vis a vis renewal of a mine operated by
Dr. Prafulla Hede, a Goa-based iron ore leaseholder with close links to Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar. The other two accused in the case are Hede himself and a State Government's mines and geology department officer A.T D'Souza, who processed the documents for the illegal renewal.
Kamat has been questioned on numerous occasions by the SIT, along with his son Yogiraj and brother in-law Satish Lawande. Another senior official then Principal Mines Secretary, Rajeev Yaduvanshi, an Indian Administrative Service officer who is currently attached to the Delhi Government, has already turned state approver in connection with the case.
Kamat and the two other accused have been booked under sections 49(i) (I-A), 19, read with section 21(1)(2) of the MMDR Act 1957, 120 B and 420 of The Indian Penal Code and sections 7,8,9,10,11,12,13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.